


Still I Rise

by PainInMyAsgard



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Captain America (Movies), Daredevil (TV), Iron Man (Movies), The Amazing Spider-Man (Movies - Webb), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Best Friends, Eventual Romance, F/M, Friendship, Humor, Hydra (Marvel), Interracial Relationship, Loss of Virginity, Oscorp - Freeform, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Post-Iron Man 3, Post-Thor: The Dark World, Pre-Guardians of the Galaxy, Science Experiments, Snark, Spies & Secret Agents, Super Soldier Serum
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-26
Updated: 2016-05-04
Packaged: 2018-03-12 03:43:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 40,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3342305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PainInMyAsgard/pseuds/PainInMyAsgard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Just like moons and like suns,<br/>With the certainly of tides,<br/>Just like hopes springing high,<br/>Still I'll rise."<br/>-Maya Angelou</p><p> </p><p>Peter Parker had two best friends growing up. </p><p>At 14, one of them left for boarding school and the other started college. One of them was the heir to a fortune rivaling that of Tony Stark, the other was a decedent of a Howling Commando. Now one of them was committed for killing his girlfriend Gwen and the other was starting her new job at Stark Tower, in the company of a living legend and a reformed Hydra assassin. 2 years Post-Winter Soldier. Bucky/OC.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all!
> 
> This story is going to follow The Amazing Spider Man 2 and the rest of the MCU for the most part, with some changes here and there.
> 
> With that said, HAPPY READING!!!
> 
> I obviously own nothing...

**Still I Rise**

 

 

 

 

"Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainly of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I'll rise."

-Maya Angelou

 

 

**Prologue:**

 

_Beep, beep…_

_Beep, beep…_

_Beep, beep…_

 

I feel heavy and horribly displaced. My chest, my arms, my head…

 

_Beep, beep…_

_Beep, beep…_

_Beep, beep…_

 

My fingers… I could move them, but only just.  Come on, open your eyes, dammit!

 

_Beep, beep…_

_Beep, beep…_

_Beep, beep…_

 

And what the hell is that noise? I swear, I’m going to lose my mind in 3, 2, 1-

I growled out a gargled noise that should have been a complete sentence but just ended up sounding like a disembodied groan of random syllables. Where was I and why couldn’t I open my eyes?

“Do you think we should tell her?”

I knew that voice! It was my father. There was no mistaking that deep, gravely quality of his but, he sounded strange. He used the same tone with me when he told me that my mother was being committed. Paranoid schizophrenia was one tough bitch to break, and didn’t I know it. I spent 8 years with the woman.

The next voice, I didn’t know.

“No, not now. Not until we have everything settled. There are still some details that need to be ironed out at the scene and with the NYPD.”

This guy, no, _man_ was absolutely no nonsense. He made you listen to what he had to say, come hell or high water.

“At this point, we have no idea what your daughter actually knows or how she is involved. What happened to the Stacy girl is unfortunate but we have more pressing problems than web slingers, electricity conducting men, and crazy billionaires.”

Gwen? What did Gwen have to do with this? And Peter… Oh, no, _Peter_.

“Yeah, that’s how SHEILD goes. There’s always a bigger problem to fix, huh?”

“You know it just as well as I do. But there’s no SHEILD anymore. It’s just me and my team, working in the name of it to fix the wrongs that started this mess.”

“But is my daughter safe? That’s what I need to know.”

I had to remember what happened! But everything is so dark…

“Yes, your daughter is safe. At least for now. Osborne’s been locked up in Ravencroft and won’t be getting out for a very long time.”

“Thank you, Nick.”

“Don’t say that too loud, Triplett. I am dead after all…”

I muster up as much strength as I can and force my eyes open.

And apparently I’m in a hospital room, attached to an IV drip and heart monitor. That explains what the stupid fucking beeping was. I turned my head to get a better look at the monitors and instantly regretted it. Ugh, yeah, minimal movement is definitely best for now.

Okay, hospital, mysterious not-so-dead bossy guy who know way more than he is letting on, and…

The power plant.

Harry found the venom at Oscorp, he took the glider. And Gwen…

_“What happened to the Stacy girl is unfortunate”_

_Ravenscroft, Institute for the Criminally Insane._

“Oh god…”

My throat was closing up, lungs moving too fast in my chest. The noise of the heart monitor increased tenfold but I couldn’t stop it.

Shaky hands flew up to my neck only to find hard plastic and soft padding.

I needed to get out of this fucking bed! I needed to find Peter. I needed…

“D-daddy,” I choked out.

He stood outside my room in the hall, looking after the man that was speaking to him before, but he was gone. The noise of the monitor seemed to reach my father as well, and he caught my gaze with his. Panic consumed his features immediately, just as my vision began to blur again.

Everything seemed to slow down.

My father was running into the room, a few other nurses at his heels. And someone was screaming. I reached for my father but my hand never got to him.

My best friend was Spider Man.

His girlfriend saved my life.

I tried to save Harry’s but I failed.

Gwen Stacy was dead, and it was all my fault.


	2. Mulling It Over

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE READ BEFORE STARING
> 
> Hello again :)
> 
> Okay so I figured I would give you guys a time line of how everything is going down just to clear things up before we really dive into the story.
> 
> The Avengers (May 2010)  
> The Amazing Spider-Man (July 2012)  
> Iron Man 3 (May 2013)  
> Thor: The Dark World (November 2013)  
> Captain America: The Winter Soldier (April 2014)  
> The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (May 2014)
> 
> As you will probably notice, the events of CA: TWS took place only a month before TASM2 in my timeline above so the Hydra take over was still very fresh and new. The story starts two years after CA: TWS and TASM2. And just to clarify, the ending of TASM2 with the little boy facing the Rhino before Spiderman comes back? Yeah, that never happened in this universe. So Spider-Man has been absent for those two years.
> 
> I’ve been wanting to write a story like this for a very long time but it never seemed right before but now, I’m really eager to get this written and out for you guys. I’m so excited for this! I will be transitioning between my OC and Bucky’s POV for the majority of the story with a few surprises along the way. 
> 
> Thanks for the support so far, and as always, HAPPY READING!!!

**Chapter 1: Mulling It Over**

**Jac POV**

“I’m telling you, Jac, I went through a list of _at least_ 10 active heroes, and Jameson is all ‘I want pictures of Spider-Man! He’s the one with the real story. I don’t care if there are no leads on his whereabouts. Find him! You’re a reporter aren’t you?’”

I just barely held myself back from laughing at Peter’s stellar impersonation of J. Jonah Jameson, mimed cigar and all, to give him the look. You know, the look you give your friends when they try to distract you from the real subject at hand by making jokes that you would normally find hilarious, but because it’s that particular person saying it, you can read through all their bullshit? Yeah, _that_ look.

I dug my hand into the greasy paper bag labeled ‘Shake Shack’ that Peter was holding out to me and grabbed three fries at a time before biting into them all at once. He was on break from work at the Daily Bugle and met me in Madison Square Park for lunch.

Peter knew I was absolutely chomping at the bit, with Graduation just behind me and job interviews around the corner, so he invited me out. You’d think that graduating from MIT with a PhD at 22 would make things easier but, nope. I’m still freaking out.

We walked over to an empty table to the left of the ordering counter together and took a seat.

“Well, you could just make it a lot easier on yourself and give the man what he wants.”

I pulled my jean jacket off almost immediately. Probably an ill made chose by me to wear it out in the middle of June in the first place but Jesus Christ, it’s hot.

Peter narrowed his eyes at me and made a weird sound in his throat, like a scoff-cough, or something. He placed the bag back on the grated table and pulled out his double cheeseburger mechanically.

I watched him as he rolled up the sleeves of his plaid button up and loosened his tie. Oh no, he’s getting thin again.

“Yeah, because that worked out so well the last time.”

My mouth paused mid chew as I stared at him.

It had been two years. Two years since the worst day of both of our lives. Peter lost the love of his life and I lost the one thing that had been driving me to get up and out the door every morning- my confidence in my ability to help others.

I had spent days looking for a solution to heal Harry, or at the very least, stop the progression of his illness. Peter refused to give him his blood. He refused to tell Harry his true identity, afraid of what the consequences would be, whether they were to him or to others- and it turned out be the latter. Once I had gotten my hands on a sample of the venom and separated Richard Parker’s DNA from the genome, it had been too late. Harry was out of time and went to the only person left he thought he could count on. That person turned out to be a mentally distraught, Spider-Man obsessed, living electric generator.

And so, the events of that night unfolded, leaving us scarred and shattered and utterly lost. I had only just begun to forge a new path for myself but it seemed I had left Peter behind. He was still so very lost.

“None of that was your fault,” I spoke without a shadow of a doubt.

Peter laughed petulantly and continued to eat his burger.

“I know you don’t want to talk about it and I understand that. But nothing that happened that night was your fault. Gwen” he winced at the mention of her, “made her own decision and so did Harry. There is nothing you or I could do to stop them.”

Peter chewed and swallowed slowly, looking everywhere but at me. He was well past the grief and sadness stage but now he was drowning himself in guilt.

This was not the Peter Parker that I knew.

“She saved a lot of people that night. And I know that if she were here, she wouldn’t want you to-”

“Don’t,” Peter said with barely contained emotion. “Don’t say that. Don’t tell me what she wouldn’t want because you don’t know. No one knows what she would want because she’s dead.”

I bit my lip and took a deep breath. This was not going to be easy.

“All I’m saying is that I don’t want you to stop being a hero because you think you do more harm than good. This city…they still believe in you and they believe in what you stood for. There may be other heroes out there, but there will never be another Spider-Man.”

Peter finally looked at me and I could see the edges of his resolve cracking.

I grabbed his hand across the table. “Just tell me that you’ll think about it…”

He stared at our hands for a moment then nodded slightly in acquiescence.

I smiled. That was good enough for me today. The Great Wall of China wasn’t built in a day, after all.

“On a much brighter note,” I said, pulling my burger from the paper bag. _Mon dieu_ , this smelled heavenly. “I found an apartment yesterday.”

“Really?” Peter enthused, glad for the change of subject I’m sure.

“Yeah! It’s in our price range, two bedrooms, two baths, pets allowed, and everything.”

“Oh shit, that’s great! Where is it?”

_Cuz it’s a bittersweet symphony, this life…_

I groaned, pulling my shaking phone from the pocket of my shorts. I know its stupid to have the volume on and the vibration but I never hear it go off and I have had one to many stern talking to’s from both my father and Aunt May about not answering my phone to leave it all to chance.

“Hello?”

A prim and proper woman greeted me on the other side of the line.

_“Hello, is this Doctor Jacqueline Hyde speaking?”_

Whelp, I guess it was time to whip out my _professional_ voice then.

“Yes, this is she. Who, may I ask is calling?”

_“This is Pepper Potts from Stark Industries.”_

I must have made some crazy fucking facial expression because Peter looked at me like I had spontaneously grown another limb out from one of my ears.

_“I would like to speak with you about coming by our facilities at Stark Tower at your earliest convenience. I believe that you would be a great addition to our Research and Developmental teams here.”_

Holy shit.

“Uh…” I heard myself say, forgetting every word in the whole of the English language.

_“If it works better for you, we can meet at another one of our locations. But from my records, I understand that you’re living in the Queens area right now.”_

I cleared my throat.

“Yes, that is correct.”

Peter threw me a look. “What is it?”

I waved my hand at him in an elaborate, shut-the-hell-up gesture. He rolled his eyes at me.

_“Great. If you’re interested we can schedule a meeting right now.”_

Holy shit, this was really happening. Okay, breathe. Don’t say anything stupid.

“I am extremely interested in your offer, Ms. Potts.”

Peter’s eyes bugged out of his head for a moment at my words and I practically jumped out of my chair.

_“That is very good news to hear, Dr. Hyde. How does Wednesday morning around 10 sound for you?”_

…I think I’m going to cry.

“That sounds perfect, Ms. Potts,” I said holding the table in a white knuckled death grip.

_“Perfect! And please, call me Pepper. I look forward to our meeting Dr. Hyde. Have a great day.”_

I barely got the words ‘you too’ out before squealing like 12 year old at a One Direction concert.

“Potts? As in Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries, Pepper Potts?”

At that point I couldn’t muster up any words in reply so I just nodded at Peter like a maniac.

He immediately got up out of his chair, pulled my semi-responsive body up to his and squeezed the life out of me.

“Dude, that’s amazing! CEOs never make their own calls. They must really want you there.”

When we pulled away from each other, I was smiling so hard my face hurt.

“This is insane…”

Peter grinned at me before glancing at his watch.

“Damn, I gotta get back to the Bugle before Jameson fires me again.”

“He fired you?”

“He fires me every other week or when he gets into a fight with his wife. You never know really.”

Yep, sounds like Jameson.

Peter picked his messenger bag up the back of his chair and lifted it onto his shoulder before leaning down to kiss my cheek.

“I’ll see you tonight. We’ll go out and celebrate, or something.”

“I haven’t gotten the job yet, Peter.”

He lifted his eyebrow at me and rolled his eyes before going on his way.

I watched after him for a moment before looking down at the food he left. Yeah, I was taking that home.


	3. Cold and Silver

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all :)
> 
> I'm so happy about the response to this story so far, it's making me wanna cry! When people enjoy something that you've spent so png thinking about and planning in your head, there is this kind of visceral reaction that can't really be explained. So thank you, and keep it coming! More responses mean quick chapters out for you guys!!!
> 
> So as always, HAPPY READING!!!!!!

**Chapter 2: Cold and Silver**

**Bucky POV**

 

 

Rage was all that I could see, hear, taste, and touch. It flowed through my veins like hot lava and solidified me, made me stronger and faster.

My fists echoed against supple leather as they connected over and over again. I had to beat this out of my system before I lost my goddamn mind.

Steve had gone off on a mission, with _Natalia_ no less. A mission he neglected to tell me about. A mission that involved hunting down remaining Hydra agents and a lead on public enemy number one, Brock _motherfucking_ Rumlow- or Crossbones, as he was calling himself lately. Last I heard he was doing freelance mercenary work, but there were whispers that he still had ties to whatever remained of the black fucking hole called Hydra.

Steve Rogers, my best friend, did not tell me about that mission.

_1, 2 punch, dodge, and uppercut._

“Jesus, man! What crawled up your ass?”

My hands halted immediately.

Sam Wilson emerged from behind the black punching bag I had been beating to a pulp, rubbing his collarbone dramatically.

“I think I might have internal bleeding. Remind me not to get on your bad side, man.”

I huffed and started pulling the wrappings from my fists, mechanical one as well.

“You said you wanted to spot.”

He rotated his arms around their sockets and threw me a look.

“Yeah, that was before you tried to take my head off,” Sam muttered. “God damn super soldiers…”

Always with the theatrics.

I rolled my eyes at him before tossing the wrappings into my gym bag. I took a look around and noticed that there were 10 other people beside us in the training center. Usually this place was packed around this time.

On our way out of the room, Sam and I passed Percy Jones, owner of Jones and Son Fitness Center here in East Flatbush, watching some guys box in the ring. He was an aged, brown-skinned man of 72 but sharp as a tack with salt and pepper hair and clever eyes. Gabe Jones, fellow Howling Commando, was his father. Once I was ‘stable enough’ to be out in the real world, according to Phil Coulson and other ‘experts’, Steve introduced me to the place. And we’ve never gone anywhere else since.

“Hey Percy, where is everybody today? There a holiday I don’t know about, or something?” I asked the man with my bag slung over my flesh and blood arm, Sam flanking my left side.

He chuckled. “No, sir, Sargent Barnes. Just watching a fight that’s much more interesting than this one,” Percy nodded toward the pair behind the ropes.

I winced internally.

 _Sargent_ Barnes _._ I wasn’t a Sargent anymore, if I ever really was one in the first place. That scared, prideful, war bound, 20-something year old didn’t exist anymore. And I wasn’t just someone’s _soldier_ anymore either. I was something else entirely.

“It’s going down on the mats, two doors down, I believe, if you wanna check it out.”

I looked at Sam.

“Eh, why not,” he shrugged. “Not like we got anything else to do.”

I pushed the longer pieces of hair that were plastered to my face back against my head and shrugged, before looking back at Percy.

“And how many times do I have to tell you to call me James, old man.”

“About the same amount as I tell you not to call me old man, Sargent,” he replied, vibrating with laughter.

With a smirk and a firm handshake, we were on our way.

“So, you think this fight is gonna be any good?” Sam asked as we made our way down the hallway.

“Probably not. Most people in this day and age think their great fighters until they get out in the real world and someone puts them on their ass. But I guess we’ll just-”

We stopped in front of a large set of open double doors surrounded by rowdy spectators, cheering the match on with scattered applause and loud whooping.

“What the hell?” I heard Sam say.

I pushed ahead of him to get a better look and finally broke through the crowd to get an eyeful of the match. And it certainly was not what I expected.

A man, 5’11 at least, with blonde hair cut close to his head and a stocky build was thrown two feet, or so, by a kick delivered to his chest from a woman. But I wouldn’t call her a woman, so much as a force of nature. She was all dark skin and hair with steely eyes and swift as the wind. She was small without being little and delicate without the caution of breakage. This woman had been forged with iron, and for a fleeting moment, I was afraid for the man she was facing.

In a flurry of movement, the two bodies met again. They both seemed to fight in similar styles reminiscent of the Chinese art of kung fu with the shadow of other Asian originating arts miming them. Limbs connected with their counterparts in blocked kicks, punches, and drives. The woman came back at the man in waves of power but he seemed to expect it this time. The blonde man caught the woman’s wrist before her next hit could connect and dragged her closer to him. His left hand was hyper expending her arm behind her back with a sharp tug, the other with a vice like grip to the back of her neck. The trapped woman groaned in pain but made no other sound.

Goddamn, this woman was tough. I’ve seen men twice her size cry like little babies from arm bars like that. And I was usually the one delivering them.

The woman gritted her teeth and crouched before reversing the entire move onto her opponent with her uninjured arm. Her feet kicked his knees out and suddenly he was kneeling on the ground in front of her, in pain.

I laughed, both at the absurdity of the sight and the utter disbelief at what my eyes were showing me. This woman probably barely broke 120lbs soaking wet, and here she was, bringing a grown ass man to his knees.

I felt a sharp pang of recognition in my chest for a moment.

Steely eyes, lithe body, iron-like disposition… She reminded me of Natalia, or Natasha, now. And for the life of me, I could not decide if that was a bad thing or not.

 

* * *

 

**Jac POV**

I got him.

 _I fucking got him_.

I think I did a happy dance in my head consisting of all kinds of indecent behavior for all of 10 seconds before I found myself laid out, ass first, on the mats. There was no doubt in my mind that I would wake up the next morning feeling like a decrepit eighty year old.

“Ugh,” I groaned, as my head swam from the rapid take down.

Danny Rand had escaped from the hold I had reverted onto him and somehow front flipped me into submission. Just when I thought I would finally win one.

“Motherfucker, I yield!”

Boughts of light laughter erupted from the crowd that had formed around us, hopefully at my exclamation and not the embarrassing, god-awful failure I had just displayed.

That’s it. I’m just gonna lay here, lay here until I shrivel up and die. It has been decided.

“Come on you,” Danny’s smooth voice said, slipping through my clouded consciousness. “Up you go.”

I cracked an eye open and saw a pale, calloused hand held out from above me.

Damn him and his politeness. He just kicked my ass and now he wants to help me up. Damn him and his fucking manners.

I huffed and forced the air out of my lungs before grasping his hand in mine- the one that wasn’t screaming in pain.

“You did good today. You’re getting better.”

I rolled my eyes and released his hand.

“What are you talking about? You still put me on my ass.”

Danny smiled a dangerously beautiful, thin-lipped half smile and sighed.

“As much as you’d like to think so Jacqueline, progress is not always about winning. Mastery of any art, especially those of the martial kind require patience, perseverance, and-“

“Let me guess. Pain?”

The three P’s, all leading up to a major ass whooping.

He laughed. “I was going to say repetition. _Gung fu_ is a practice based, at its core, in endless repetition and focus. One may have natural skill but without the application of that skill, one can easily fall short of their own potential. Those who try and fail, and try and fail again will always be better off than the one who won once and never tried again.”

“Wow,” I whispered, staring in awe. “That was really great. Philosophical too. You should get your own TV show.”

The crowd around us had dissipated significantly since my outburst and made it visible for me to pick Peter out instantly. He shook his head at me from the periphery of the room but sported a proud, toothy smile I hadn’t seen in a very long time. It was nice to se it again, and hopefully, it was here to stay.

“I guess I’ll see you the same time next week then,” I said, turning back to Danny.

“Next week it is,” he spoke with an amused grin adorning his features.

I nodded and watched Danny for a moment as he went to fetch his belongings. “And tell your friend Matt I said hello!” I yelled after him.

You know, if it weren’t for the fact that he was about twice my age, in a committed relationship with a female NYPD officer, and a superhero, I would totally consider dating Danny ‘Iron Fist’ Rand. But I just couldn’t do the hero thing. That might seem a bit hypocritical with the amount of heroes that I know personally but I had seen the way it affected people and their lives and it wasn’t easy- not that any relationship ever is. But after Gwen…I just couldn’t imagine it anymore. I wanted to be with someone I could count on to be there when I needed them, not fly off somewhere they couldn’t tell me about in order to ‘keep me safe’ at a moments notice. I had enough secrecy in my own life without adding in someone else’s.

Peter was a special case. And I wasn’t dating Peter. Peter had been my best friend since childhood, so I knew and loved him before he was Spider-Man and I sure as hell still love him afterward.

I met Peter at the back of the room where he stood, leaning against a padded wall panel, looking like a character straight out of The Outsiders- calm, cool, and collected. Well, not so much cool, but don’t tell him I said that.

“You know, it probably wasn’t the best idea to get yourself beat up a two days before a job interview,” he said, gesturing to the arm I had cradled against my torso.

“I should be fine by Wednesday,” I said, shoving him with my good arm.

“Yeah, okay,” he chuckled lightly, handing me my black workout bag. “Let’s see you say that tomorrow morning. Should I start calling you Quasimodo now or later?”

I faked a laugh before giving him the ugliest stank face I could manage at the moment.

“Wow, I didn’t know Danny messed up you face, too, Jac!”

“Oh my god!”

I shoved my bag into his chest, indicating that he should shut the hell up _right now_ or his face was going to be messed up too.

He laughed and threw his arm around my good shoulder and led me out of the building. Between foolish laughs and conversation my eyes strayed from Peter’s and the parking lot of Jones and Son Fitness Center ahead of me to a flash of silver in my peripheral vision. There was a man pulling himself into the passenger seat of a navy blue four-door Jeep, but the flash of silver wasn’t the car. It was the man’s arm. His entire left arm was clad in, no, it _was_ silver. A bio-metallic alloy of some sort, I could only imagine, and top of the line mechanics. They don’t just hand out that kind of stuff to any wounded soldier in the armed forces -if he was a soldier, that is.

Before I could get a better look at the arm, or the man for that matter, he was gone, tucked up into the Jeep with blacked out windows obscuring my view even further. It didn’t help that the sun had set already too.

“So, do you wanna come?”

Peter’s voice broke through my reverie and I stared at him dumbly.

“What?”

“Do you wanna come over for dinner tonight? I know your dad is probably at work till late and Aunt May made meatloaf.”

I must have made a face because Peter instantly continued.

“I know Aunt May’s cooking isn’t great but, were gonna be moving out soon and you know how she is. She wants to spend as much time with us as she can because Park Slope, Brooklyn might as well be New Zealand, as far as she’s concerned.”

I sighed and nodded in agreement. I would miss Aunt May dearly as well…just not her meat loaf. But I could stick it out for another couple of nights.

As much as I tried to spend the train ride back to Forest Hills thinking of excuses to use on Aunt May to convince her that one serving of her meat loaf was more than enough to fill me up, my mind drifted back to silver- cold and silver.


	4. Welcome to the Neighborhood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all! 
> 
> I've been spending the last couple of days thinking and jotting down ideas and plat things for real meat of this story and I can't wait till I really get into it for you. The anticipation is killing me just as much as it is (hopefully) killing you. Without further ado, here is another chapter. Thank you so much for your support so far, and keep it coming! 
> 
> As always, happy reading :)

**Chapter 3: Welcome to the Neighborhood**

**Jac POV**

 

 

_A cold sweat had broken against my hairline and the small of my back. Hot hands grazed against the bare skin of my torso, setting off a temperature war in my body. My fingers clenched in silken sheets at the change and my back bowed off of the bed, taught as a bowstring. Hands that were not my own shifted down my sides, leaving a trail of fire behind before a moan tore itself from my throat._

_I was panting. I was too wound up. And I wanted him so bad it hurt._

_A shiver ran through my body as soft lips grazed the valley between my breasts, a hot tongue flicking out to taste my skin. The hands on me drifted lower to the dip in my waist, my hips, the tops of my thighs, and then met in the middle. I instantly released my death grip on the bedspread and buried themselves in the caramel head of hair against my naked chest._

_The head lifted in my arms and cool blue eyes met warm brown ones. His lips captured mine in a slow, sultry motion before his tongue dipped between them, teasing me again._

_“Please, Harry,” I begged him, dragging my mouth from his._

_And before I could protest again, he was inside me, owning me, controlling me… And I was his._

My body shook itself awake, almost rolling forward onto the hard wood floor of my bedroom. I righted myself quickly and flopped onto my back, staring at the ceiling, dazed and confused.

Harry Osborne had always had a way with women. And for most, it was his money that drew them in. If not his money, it was his soft face, charming disposition, and cerulean eyes that stared right through you. As children, I had become friends with Harry out of association and developed somewhat of a schoolgirl crush on him, my first ever. As adults, I had succumbed for an entirely different reason and it soon evolved into my first sexual experience.

He was dying and I did everything in my power to prevent that from happening. I trusted him, he trusted me and towards the end, even more than he did Peter. One night it had gotten really bad and he called me over to his place. When I arrived, he had already begun drinking himself into an angry stupor, with his hand shaking around a tumbler of whiskey so hard, he could barely keep it in his grip. Peter couldn’t help him, Spider Man _wouldn’t_ help him, and I was all he had left.

 _“Would you care, Jac,”_ he asked me, _“if I were gone? Would you mourn?”_

_“Of course I would, you idiot. What do you think I’m doing here in the first place? Waiting for the sun to rise?”_

He’d laughed at that, and then when the tears began to fall from his eyes in waves, I held him. I held him as tightly as he needed to be held. And when he kissed me, I didn’t stop him. So, he made love to me that night like it was his last night on earth because it very well could have been. But in the morning, I woke up alone.

The next time I saw him was two weeks after the blackout, through a one-way mirror at Ravencroft Institute, after I had been released from NY Presbyterian following an attack from his buddy Electro. Peter and Gwen stopped him and while I lay unconscious on the asphalt, Harry came. But he wasn’t Harry anymore- he was the Goblin. The Goblin came and stole Peter’s hope away.

From that day on, I never visited him again.

But the public only knew him as Harry Osborn- they hadn’t met the Goblin yet. The official statement from Oscorp had been that Harry had an ‘unfortunate mental breakdown’ after his father’s death and, coupled with his life threatening illness, he had been committed to Ravencroft for strict observation and treatment. A few months later, the board had sold the company and it was absorbed into Stark Industries.

Two years later, and here we were. So why was I still dreaming about that night? It had been _two fucking years_. The familiar feelings of contempt and disgust began to creep up on me as I laid in my bed. I needed a shower and a run.

An hour later, I was bathed, out the door and en route to Prospect Park. It was a block or two from the apartment Peter and I were about to move into so I decided to do something productive and learn my way around the area.

The park was much bigger than I had initially thought. I was barely halfway through the trails and had already passed two fountains, a playground, and a boathouse. My feet slowed down around the bend of the lake and stopped altogether when I spotted a set of benches.

I plopped down, taking a seat and plucked my water bottle from the clip on my hip. It was cool enough this morning where I could wear my grey MIT pullover with a pair of black leggings and not have to worry about sweating my ass off.

Harry Osborn.

Harry _fucking_ Osborne.

I had spent two years thinking of anything and everything but him and now he was _all_ I was thinking about. And the worst part of it was that I didn’t know where I stood with him, emotionally. Did I hate him? Did I feel sorry for him, or pity him? Did I…love him?

I began to bow my head in shame at the thought when something warm and wet pressed against the back of my calf then, surprising me.

A large multi colored dog with bright blue eyes appeared next to me with its wet black nose rubbing up and down my leg, smelling me. Its coat was a smattering of black, white, and tan and its ears were pointed skyward. The dog immediately looked up, sensing that I had noticed it. Its head tilted to the side and seemed to appraise me with inquisitive eyes before sitting down quietly.

I chuckled for a moment. The dog seemed nice enough to me so I reached out slowly and stroked behind its ears. The fur was remarkably soft and warm and moved through my fingers like water. Its eyes immediately drooped and a pink tongue rolled forward from its mouth.

“Well, I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself,” I said aloud. My hand moved down to its neck and I noticed the bright blue collar wrapped around the dogs neck.

So you do have an owner…

“Apollo!”

The dog immediately barked softly in reply, startling me again, but remained where it was. I pulled my hand back tentatively and looked in the direction of the voice.

“Holy shit,” I muttered beneath my breath.

Last night, I hadn’t seen his face but I knew the man approaching me up the bend now was him- the man with the metal arm.

 

* * *

 

**Bucky POV**

 

This damn thing was going to be the death of me, I swear.

 _‘You should get a dog, Bucky. It’ll be good for you,’_ Steve had said.

Sure, after two years, I had grown to really love the monster but, Christ, did he have to run up and say hello to every person we passed? I’d learned pretty quickly to stop bringing him to the park when there were lots of people around. Subsequently, it worked in my favor, seeing as I didn’t like being around crowds anyway.

So, here I was, up at the ass crack of dawn, walking my dog through Prospect Park. It turns out that I’d ended up throwing his toy a bit further than I had meant to and now he was off, god knows where. And, damn, was that dog fast.

“Apollo!”

As I was making my way up the bend, his resonant bark replied to my call.

Thank fuck.

I spotted him, sitting by one of the benches underneath a big oak tree, with a woman- a woman who I had seen not too long ago. And she was _petting my dog_.

It could just be my natural suspicion of people, or the ingrained distrust still present in my consciousness from my Hydra days, but seeing this woman two days in a row when I had never met her before in my life, was a bit strange…and unsettling.

My senses were immediately on red alert.

She got up from the bench as I approached and I stilled.

_Two possible means of escape- one involves retrieving the animal, the other does not. Distance from safe house is approximately 2.6 miles. By car, duration is roughly 9 minutes. By foot, duration is increases 83.02 percent. Possibility of pursuit after escape? Undetermined._

“Hi,” the woman spoke shyly, pulling a stray piece of ebony hair, which had fallen out of a messy bun, from her cheek. “You must be the owner.”

I narrowed my eyes at her before feigning politeness.

“Yes, I am,” I said, resuming my approach, but slower. “I’m sorry if he bothered you.”

“Oh, no, it’s perfectly fine. I love animals, so, its no problem,” she spoke with a smile in her voice, warmth surrounding her words.

Hm, sincerity.

“What kind of dog is he?”

_More information needed to determine potential threat._

_Conversational tone recommended._

“A German Shepard-Husky mix. Do you happen to live around here, or…”

“No. Well, yes and no.”

I narrowed my eyes again.

She shook her head. “I just got an apartment a few blocks away and I’m moving in soon. But, no, I don’t live around here _now_.”

“Oh…”

“I’m Jac, by the way.”

She lifted her right hand from her side and held it out to me, with her rounded nails painted an obscene shade of green.

_Potential for threat is low. Approach with caution._

I placed my flesh and blood hand in hers and shook firmly. The differences in skin color were stark, hers a warm hickory and mine a deep beige from sun exposure. She winced slightly and I released her right away, realizing that that was the arm she had injured the night before in her match.

“I’m sorry,” I spoke before I could stop myself.

Jac waved my words away. “It’s not your fault. I went and got myself beat up yesterday during training. But I will say I put up one hell of a fight.”

My mouth lifted in a knowing smirk.

I’m sure you did…

“So, what’s Jac short for?” I asked, genuinely curious.

She didn’t exactly _look_ like a Jackson, or Jackie for that matter. But what did I know? I haven’t exactly been ‘down with the times’ lately. Steve was better acquainted with this day and age than I was, and that was saying something. And Sam hadn’t had the chance to catch me up much with Avengers duties and what not, not for lack of trying though.

“ _Jacqueline_ ,” she said in a crystal clear French accent.

I raised an eyebrow. “ _Parlez-vous français_?”

Her eyes widened for a moment before her entire face lit up and she flashed a blinding 100-watt smile.

“ _Oui, monsieur_ ,” she said excitedly. “ _Ma mère m'a appris quand je étais jeune_.”

“I haven’t spoken in the language in years though, so I apologize if my pronunciation is a bit off.”

“Don’t worry, you sound perfectly fine to me.”

 _Jac_ nodded at me before looking down and away, with a shy smile still adorning her mouth.

Wow, she really is a looker.

Apollo trotted up between us then, huffing in distaste. He didn’t like being ignored, but it seemed that he did like this woman.

“Well, it looks like it’s time for us to go.”

I leaned down quickly and pulled the leash from the back pocket of my jeans, attaching it to Apollo’s collar. As I rose back to natural height, he rubbed his muzzle against Jac’s leg, adoringly.

 _Jesus, Mary, and Joseph._ Pull yourself together! You’ve known her for all of 15 minutes and you’ve already become a mush ball.

Jac’s silvery laugh floated up to me before she rubbed the top of Apollo’s head.

“It was nice to meet you, too,” she looked up at me, seeming to remember herself. “And you as well, Mister...”

“James. Just James.”

“Alright, _Just James_. I guess I will see you around then.”

The man I used to be, the man named Bucky, would have said something along the lines of ‘Yeah, if you’re lucky’. But I wasn’t that man anymore.

So, I nodded politely and went on my way, with Apollo scampering beside me.

When I reached the apartment, I noticed a black Chevy truck parked in the front of our two-floor walk-up.

Steve was back from the mission. And we had a lot to talk about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations:
> 
> Parlez-vous français?- Do you speak French?  
> Oui, monsieur!- Yes, sir!  
> Ma mère m'a appris quand je étais jeune.- My mother taught it to me when I was young.


	5. Fancy Meeting You Here

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again :)
> 
> This is the longest chapter I have written so far and I'm sure they will continue to get longer as we delve deeper and deeper into the story, but thats the way it should be! Sorry, this update is a little later than the usual. I needed to kick my muse into gear, but once she got going, she didn't stop. So without further ado-do, here is another installment for ya'll.
> 
> As always, HAPPY READING!!!!!

**Chapter 4: Fancy Meeting You Here**

**Bucky’s POV**

 

 

 

As it turns out, Steve wasn’t the one I should have been upset with.

He was on strict orders from Director Coulson to keep the details of his mission under wraps till he got back, i.e. _don’t tell Bucky anything_. The mission Steve was deployed on was run by SHIELD and on a reconnaissance basis only, no killing. Apparently, Coulson didn’t want me out in the field because it was ‘too much of a risk, with the Government riding our asses’ for the Hydra takeover- like I hadn’t been through months of therapy and conditioning to get me to where I was today. The rage had subsided exponentially since I’d gotten my freedom and my memories back, but the nightmares remained. Sometimes, I’d wake in a cold sweat with images of snow streaked with red and my sight down the scope of a rifle. Sometimes I’d wake up screaming…

In the aftermath, Steve understood my need for information on and about my enemy, the people who took my life away from me so easily. So today, Steve agreed to fill me in on what was going down so far, hence why we were in Stark Tower this morning. The Avengers were having a meeting or pow-wow or whatever the hell Stark calls it, and I was Steve’s plus one- no matter how much Tony prattled on about it.

“You do realize you don’t work here, right, Tin Man?” he said, taking a sip from a tall glass filled with a thick green liquid. Steve gave him a withering glare before throwing his jacket over one of the black leather sofa chairs in the center of the room

“And you do realize I can crush your skull in my fist, right, Stark?” I retorted, standing behind the matching three-seater couch.

Stark threw his hand out in outrage before setting his glass down.

“You can’t threaten me in my own tower. That’s against the rules.”

“It’s not your tower anymore, Tony. It’s Pepper’s.” A soft, sultry voice rose from the opening of the elevator at the far right of the room. Natasha walked out with the archer at her heels, sans the skintight black body suit. She almost looked normal.

Wow, that was gonna take some getting used to.

“Are we actually getting any valuable information at this meeting or is this going to be like last time where Tony called us over because he got bored with his robots and his left hand?”

Natasha snorted at the archers comment before taking an empty spot on the loveseat.

“I resent that completely,” Stark said, picking up his glass and moving out from behind the bar he had been tinkering at. “I use both hands when the time comes and yes, apparently this is actually important. According to Capsicle and Romanoff, that is.”

I gave Steve a look at the nickname and he shook his head, used to Stark’s banter, I suppose. Then again, Steve had always possessed more patience with others than I ever could. If it were me, I’d have thrown Stark through a wall by now- a few actually.

“So all were waiting for is Banner,” Steve voiced aloud.

The archer spoke again. “And Thor.”

If I cared enough, I would have learned the man’s name by now- but I didn’t. And the only thing I knew about Banner was the fact that he was a scientist who occasionally turned into a ‘green rage-monster’, according to Stark. I hadn’t had the pleasure of witnessing that yet. As for the alien, I was fine in my ignorance. This world was messed up enough without me having to learn about a new one.

“Point Break is off planet right now. I didn’t count on him coming anyway,” Stark shrugged.

“ _Dr. Banner and Mr. Wilson are on their way up now, sir_.”

My body tensed up at the sudden sound of a smooth, mechanical voice filling the room from all angles.

That must have been the robot Stark made that was currently running his tower, and his suits- Jarvis. Pretty impressive for a guy who was still playing second rate to his father after 30 years. But thank god Sam was gonna be here. I wasn’t sure I could take an hour of being around these hero types for too long. I had been here, what 20 minutes, and I already wanted to pull someone’s head off. Steve was bad enough and I lived with him.

The elevator pinged again and Sam emerged with an average sized, tan, dark-haired man with rumpled clothing and thin glasses that sat slightly askew on the bridge of his nose.

“Aw, look at you all,” Sam said with a childlike sigh in his voice. “It’s like one big, dysfunctional, super powered, family.”

“Wilson, who invited you?” Tony groused, in good spirit this time. Stark actually liked Sam and, for a reason beyond me, the feelings were mutual, from what I could tell.

“I’m an Avenger on the split shift, Tony. That means I can show up when I want.”

Sam smirked before plucking an apple from the fruit bowl on Stark’s bar counter.

Dr. Banner quietly made his way to the opposite side of the room, standing on his own. He lived in the tower along with the rest of the scientists that worked with the Avengers and had probably come straight from the lab.

“Now, before I take the attention away from the nitty gritty stuff with my own, _more important_ news, Rogers and Natasha have the floor,” Stark said as he walked over to where Bruce stood and stopped next to him. Sam nodded toward me from across the room in acknowledgement as we waited for them to start.

I almost laughed out loud at the face Steve made before he opened his mouth.

Long story short, Steve and Natasha infiltrated a facility in Northern France with a lead on Crossbones’ whereabouts from SHIELD intelligence. Items of note were found in the perfume factory they had set up base in. There were casualties, but none were on our side. The more the fucking merrier, I say.

They didn’t find him but they found evidence of him being there, and not too long ago. According to some records, Rumlow had checked in two days before they got there- just _two fucking days_. We were catching up to the bastard. Portfolios were also found, detailing Hydra’s special projects in the works but most of it had been destroyed before the strike teams had gotten there. SHIELD was currently working on piecing together whatever they found but, so far, only one thing was recovered. The letters O.O. were inscribed on every page of the lab records. There were no leads yet on what or whom the letters meant to reference but there was hope for something definitive soon.

Starks news afterwards was far less eventful.

 

* * *

 

**Jac POV**

 

 

 

The interview was winding down in the office of CEO Virginia Potts at Stark Tower and I couldn’t be more glad for it. I had probably sweated out the fresh smell of my deodorant from my nervousness.

“I see that your dominant field of study is biochemical engineering, but you also seem to float in and out of the genetics field. Any particular reason why?”

I looked up at Ms. Potts, appraising her from her tightly held chignon of strawberry blonde hair to her stylish but business-like two piece cream suit that she wore, across her slim and spacious oak wood desk and resisted the urge to groan.

I was asked this question, frequently. Other scientists always wanted to know what each other were up to and why, especially ones who graduated 6 years before they were supposed to, and were female… _black_ females specifically.

I cleared my throat. “My mother was in the military before she had me. While enlisted, she was involved in a horrifying mission in which she was the only one left alive in her squadron. She was honorably discharged not soon after and had me later that year. When I was growing up, my mother was routinely treated for PTSD and panic attacks. Her symptoms were never too bad, at least around me, for the first 6 to 7 years of my life. When I was 8, things began to change with her. Her behavior became more erratic and unexplainable and later, dangerous to herself and others. She was examined by doctors and given higher doses of medication but that didn’t fix the problem.”

“One night, I was laying in bed and I heard her scream. It was nothing I hadn’t heard before so, I went to go check on her, like always. She was standing in the kitchen hunched over the sink and there was blood on the floor. I thought she had hurt herself so I rushed over to her…” I stopped and bit my lip before a shiver ran through me. It never got any easier to tell this story.

“It wasn’t my mother’s blood on the floor- it was our cat, Maize’s. She had cut the cat’s throat and put her body in the sink. And then she looked at me and I knew that this woman, this figure, wasn’t my mother anymore. My mother baked cookies at 5 in the afternoon everyday and watched crappy cartoons with me every Saturday morning. The mother that I knew, in that moment was gone and there was no doubt in my mind that she would kill me too if she got the chance. So when she came at me, I ran. I ran out of my house and didn’t stop running for twelve blocks. I ran all the way to the police station and told them what happened.”

“The doctor’s said that she had had a complete mental break and diagnosed her with paranoid schizophrenia. _My mother_ , a spontaneous mental break down. That doesn’t _just happen_. There had to be a _reason_ for that happening and I had to find that reason. So after that night, I knew what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to help people, in anyway that I could. But I especially wanted to help prevent that from happening to any young child that came after me, if I could help it. Genetics can tell us a lot about people but the most important things we have to learn on our own.”

My eyes that had gotten lost in the room during my retelling and rose back to Ms. Potts’ behind her desk and I could see them swimming in pools of unshed tears.

“You are a very brave young woman, Dr. Hyde,” she spoke, with her voice thick with tears and a sad smile on her lips.

I nodded because that was all that I could do.

She wiped under her eyes quickly before rising from her chair.

“And with that, I can honestly say it would be an honor to have you with us here at Stark Industries.”

I rose as well and smiled so hard, my face hurt.

“Thank you, so much, Ms. Potts! You won’t regret it.”

She laughed. “No, I don’t believe I will.”

My body was practically buzzing with excitement as she led me out of her office and down a few floors onto the R and D level. I had to physically stop myself from jumping into the air after I laid my eyes on the equipment in the labs. Not that I could do it anyway with the skirt and heels I was currently squeezed into.

“Oh my god, it’s like candy land!” I squealed.

“I thought you would like it,” Pepper said, sounding inherently pleased with herself.

I was way too busy checking out the new toys I would get to play with to notice the group of people walking toward us, out from a couple labs over. I take that back, not people, freaking _super heroes_.

“Holy fuck,” I muttered beneath my breath.

Tony Stark, recognizable by the AC/DC shirt and perfectly groomed facial hair was at the head of the pack, followed closely behind by the rest of the Avengers. Jesus Roosevelt Christ, was it even possible to have so many attractive people in one room together? Apparently, so.

Please, _for the love of all that is holy_ , don’t let me have sweat out my deodorant.

“There you are,” Ms. Potts said, waving the group over. “Tony, I want you to meet the newest and brightest addition to the research and development team. Dr. Jacqueline Hyde.”

At this point, I might have been gaping like a fish and I wouldn’t have known.

“You mean, _my_ research and development team?” Mr. Stark corrected.

She laughed sharply. “No, _the_ research and development team.”

A discontented hum was all that I heard in reply from him.

“Jacqueline Hyde, huh,” Tony looked me over. “Your parents must have a good sense of humor.”

I breathed out what was supposed to be a chuckle. “It’s either that, or I’m just lucky that way.”

He narrowed his eyes at me and began muttering beneath his breath. I was honestly confused on whether I was supposed to hear him or not.

“Hyde, where do I know that name…?”

Mr. Stark looked away from me, in deep contemplation before giving up after a moment.

“Eh, not important. But since I didn’t hire you I will have to do a through background check on all of you going-on’s in the last 10-12 years. What are you, 14?”

Pepper turned to glare at him.

“I’m 22 actually,” I corrected. I know I’m not that tall, but jeeze…

Pepper said more words to Tony but I didn’t hear them. As cute as their marital spat was, something, _someone,_ much stranger and more mysterious caught my eye behind them.

“Just James.”

I must have said that much louder than I had intended to because the next thing I knew, I was being stared down my seven sets of eyes, including a slate blue set that I had seen before. Dark brown hair was pulled back into a low ponytail on his head. His upper lip twitched up for a millisecond as he met my gaze before he remembered the people around us.

_“You know, Tin Man?”_

_“You know, Bucky?”_

_“You know each other?”_

Mr. Stark, Captain America, and Pepper Potts all spoke simultaneously and stared between the two of us.

“We’ve crossed paths before,” James said lowly, with no hint of elaboration. There was a black man standing beside him with a sly grin plastered on him mouth. Whatever that meant.

“Well,” Mr. Stark rubbed his hands together with a lascivious grin. “This is going to be fun.”


	6. Falling For You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLO MY DARLINGS
> 
> SURPRISE! 
> 
> Two updates in two days... Well, kinda-ish. This chapter was a doozie. But hopefully a goodie. Anyway, Happy Friday the 13th!
> 
> Happy reading :)))))

**Chapter 5: Falling For You**

**Jac POV**

The guards never allowed me into the room with her anymore.

She was free from the usual restraints on her bed today and was pacing freely around the room. I watched her from the one-way mirror present at the far wall of her space. The cell was labeled **VIVIENNE HYDE** in block letters on the chrome, key card secured, door.

Her sepia skin stood out against the pristine whiteness of the room and the slate grey of her two-piece patient suit, distinctly labeled ‘Ravencroft Institute’ across the shoulder blades. My mothers thick curls laid in a chaotic halo around her head, untamed, but I knew she didn’t care about that anymore. She seemed to care about little these days, least of all her appearance.

I came to visit her once a week, every week for 14 years, even when I was up at school. My father and I had a routine until the time came where I was old enough to come on my own. Visitation in the morning, lunch in the afternoon to catch up, and I was back on the train that night to Boston out of Penn Station. Sometimes, my mother would say my name while I was present and for a fleeting moment, I remembered the woman she used to be. Those were the good days.

The lingering thoughts of Harry being so close to her and, by relation, me, was unsettling to say the least, but I’d slowly come to accept the symmetry of that fact. He was where he needed to be, and so was my mother.

I checked the silver watch attached to my right wrist and sighed. I had a little over an hour to get into Manhattan and Union Square in order to make it to work on time- my first day, mind you.

Jacqueline Hyde, damaged black girl from Queens with secrets rivaling that of the Sphinx, was working at Stark Tower among the most brilliant minds in the world. It was almost unreal to admit it to myself, but here I was. And I had worked my ass of for it.

I straightened the I.D. tag attached to my forest green button down beneath my black blazer as I made my way out of the subway station and onto the wet asphalt of Union Square. The area was buzzing with people accustomed to the fast paced nature of morning life on New York streets. Car horns were blaring, people cursed each other out from open windows, and those on the street pushed their way from one spot to the next. City life wasn’t for everyone but I had been born and bred in it. I lived and breathed this city and I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.

I checked my watch quickly and walked over to the newsstand waiting outside of the exit of Union Square Park before glancing around at the papers. The Daily Bugle headline this morning read:

**‘Merger-She Wrote!**

**Stark Industries to repossess all projects and developmental contracts with US Military, two years after the fall of Oscorp.’**

Thank god. The last thing the military needs is more science equipment they can’t handle. I’d rather watch them rot in the basement of Stark Tower, never to be seen again than see them halfway around the world, being weaponized by countries we were at war with or worse.

I left two singles on the metal counter before grabbing a copy and going on my way. My eyes fell to my watch again before I shoved the paper into my messenger bag. Twenty minutes to spare before getting to the tower. Five blocks more and I would be home free.

_Cuz it’s a bittersweet symphony, this life…_

The crosswalk symbol lit up white, indicating that it was safe to make it across Union Square East and East 14th street just as my phone began to ring in the pocket of my jeans. I followed the crowd across to the next intersection and pulled my phone out, smiling at the caller I.D.

“Hello, honey. Yes, I will be home in time for dinner.”

Peter snorted. _“You’re hilarious. But seriously, good luck today. I know how nervous a new job can make you. Especially those with a crazy boss.”_

“Well, Tony doesn’t seem too bad,” I shrugged. “Just a little…”

 _“Narcissistic?”_ Peter offered.

I laughed. “Yes, narcissistic. And he’s not even really my boss. Potts is the one who owns everything so I should be free and in the clear.”

 _“That’s great then, Jac,”_ Peter paused. _“Besides wishing you luck, I actually called to tell you something pretty important.”_

I made my way passed another intersection and onto the sidewalk of 14th street as Peter spoke. Important could mean a lot of things- bad or good.

“Oh, no. What is it?”

_“It’s nothing bad! I promise. It’s just… Well, I’ve been thinking about what you said and I decided that-”_

“Jacqueline.”

My body froze midstep. Travelers grumbled behind me and maneuvered themselves around my immobile body.

…You have got to be kidding me.

Peter’s voice was blaring through the phone, begging me to tell him what was going on but I couldn’t hear him anymore. All I heard was that voice call my name- smooth and seductive and infinitely dangerous, just like the person who possessed it.

Although it was screaming against itself, I willed my body to turn toward the face of the man who had been haunting my dreams.

“Harry,” I whispered breathlessly into the phone.

Dark sunglasses hid his eyes from view but it was his mouth rising into an expression that chilled me to the bone. He was _smiling_ , like a child seeing the sun for the first time.

I didn’t think. I just ran. Thank god I had decided against wearing heels this morning.

I ran as fast as my feet would carry me through the mass of bystanders on the sidewalk. I shoved some and some shoved me back but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop because if I did…I would be lost.

I cut corners and dived into alleyways with my phone still tightly in my grip, searching for a way out of sight. When I found one, my body skittered to a halt but not in relief.

God fucking dammit.

My path was blocked by a large, stocky man in a dark suit with his arms folded as he stared at me impassively. He must have been working with Harry.

“I don’t have all day, cupcake.”

Make that a yes.

I sized him up for a moment. He was only about two inches taller than Peter and by the size of him, I would have a definite speed advantage.

_“Find your center, where ever that may be…then attack.”_

Danny’s words rang in my head as my parents, Peter, and Aunt May flashed behind my eyelids. I took a deep breath, and then I let all hell break loose on the motherfucker.

My right hand flew out to strike his throat and while he was hunched over, I took a few shots to his ribs with both my fists.

“Oh, fuck!”

I kicked both of the man’s knees out and he hit the floor with a loud groan. As he fell, I kicked the small of his back with all the force I could muster, sending him face forward into the concrete.

Cries of pain followed me as I ran past the incapacitated man and into the open apartment building a few feet behind him. More men in suits had begun to follow behind me, leaving me with only one choice- upwards. My feet didn’t still as I ran past men and woman, down hallways and up stairs. I guess at that time on the stepper at the gym had served me well because I had made it up 10 flights without passing out.

My eyes darted to the steel door labeled 'roof' at the end of a short nook at the top floor and with men following close behind, I pushed through it. Not the smartest decision, I know, but what else could I do?

Icy terror flooded and seized my veins.

I was trapped. There was nothing else _to_ do.

I was quaking like a leaf in the wind by the time two suited men followed after me through the exit onto the roof. My fist clenched and I backed away immediately. They were glaring at me now, one of them sporting a bloody face and a broken nose. Well, at least I got one.

“What are you going to do to me?”

The words came out of my mouth in a rush, blurring syllables together as I panted for air.

Harry Osborn made his way through the threshold and stared at me for a moment. He must have taken his sweet time getting up here because he hadn’t broken a sweat. He was dressed in a loose leather jacket and a white dress shirt with the first few buttons undone, displaying a strip of ivory skin to the air. His legs were clad in dark straight leg jeans and brown motorcycle boots.

“They aren’t going to do anything to you. But was that really necessary?” he asked, stepping closer to me.

I flinched on instinct and my grip tightened around my phone. Damn, I still had this fucking thing. Useless now.

“Necessary,” I choked out a humorless laugh. “You killed Gwen, Harry!”

Finally, he pulled he glasses from his eyes, looking me over quickly before glancing away. There were no dark circles beneath his eyes and he even had a healthy flush to his cheeks. Harry looked every inch as beautiful as the last time I saw him, only this time he looked healthy.

“What happened that night was unfortunate and I regret how things transpired. But I did my time in Ravencroft, two years of absolute hell. And I’m trying to make things better Jacqueline.”

 _Unfortunate_ , he says.

My eyes were pinned to his icy gaze as he approached me with his empty hand held out, refusing to stop as I backed away.

“Just come with me, Jacqueline. I can explain everything, preferably somewhere that isn’t the top of a 10 story building.”

“I’m fine right here, thanks,” I said heatedly. “How did you even get out of Ravencroft?”

I nodded to Dumb and Dumber. “Who are those men, and why are they following you around? Did you finally get someone to do you dirty work for you?”

I watched a tick form in Harry’s jaw before his mouth leapt into a dark smirk. He pulled his glasses back on and straightened his jacket.

“You don’t trust me.”

I laughed out loud, almost in full hysterics.

“That is an outrageous understatement.”

My feet had backed themselves up to the edge of the apartment building by then and I could hear the bustle of people below me. My calf’s grazed the edge of the brick wall and I dropped my phone immediately. The screen still clearly displayed Peter Parker, with a picture of us at my 21st birthday celebration.

“Just come back from the edge, Jacqueline,” he held his hand out to me again.

If I heard him correctly, there was fear etched into his words.

“No,” I spoke firmly. There was no way in hell I was going anywhere with him and his sketchy fucking bodyguards.

“I’m not going to hurt you!”

“NO! I don’t believe you!”

There were tears in my eyes now, tears of anger and frustration and crippling fear. My instincts were telling me to get as far away from him as possible but there was only one way to do that. So if I was going to die today, it was going to be on my terms _, not Harry fucking Osborn’s._

“Jac, please…” He was pleading with me now.

I squeezed my eyes shut, willing him away as hot tears fell down my cheeks and stepped onto the ledge.

“I’m sorry, Peter.”

I made my voice as clear as I was able in the moment and prayed that he could hear me.

And then I fell.


	7. NOT The Babysitter's Club

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all :)
> 
> I'm really sorry it took so long for me to update. I didn't really get the response I was hoping for for the last couple of chapters so it kind of discouraged me. But my muse had returned to me and I am back. Thank you to those of you who did respond, it is greatly appreciated. Feedback is what I thrive on and the more I get, the more incentive I have to keep the story going.
> 
> So here you go!
> 
> HAPPY READING!!!!!!

**Chapter 6: NOT the Babysitter's Club**

**Jac POV**

 

 

I wasn’t sure how it happened, and that really should have bothered me, but I was at Stark Tower. I was sitting down, at a desk labeled ‘Dr. Hyde’ on the R and D floor, in a room two doors down from the laboratories.

I actually had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. Retracing the steps in my head didn’t help either.

Union Square, phone call with Peter, _Harry_ , apartment building, and then…nothing.

This was really starting to freak me out.

_“Dr. Hyde, if I may be so bold to say, I have taken scans of your physical heath signs and it seems as if you may be going into shock.”_

My eyes shot up to the ceiling when a soft industrial voice filled the room, startling me so much, I had almost missed what it had said.

“I’m sorry, who are you?” my voice was no higher than that of a mouse.

“ _Jarvis, madam. Pleased to make your acquaintance. I am an artificial intelligence Mr. Stark created as a way of assist him in the navigation of his work place and technological creations_.”

Okay…

“ _However, I do insist you seek out medical attention as soon as possible_.”

Medical attention? But, I felt fine. At least I thought I did…

I looked down at my hands in my lap and saw that my knuckles we split open in a few places and bruises were beginning to form in others. The right pocket of my blazer was also ripped from its seam and a button or two was missing from my dress shirt.

What the fuck?

I pushed my chair out further and gasped. Both of my kneecaps were streaked with red, the material of my jeans torn and displaying the macabre beneath them. Small trails of blood had dripped down the pant leg.

When I caught my reflection in the glass of the table beneath me I almost screamed. The loose waves I had styled my hair into this morning were non-existent. They had given way to fizz and medusa-like locks that would have made 80s Madonna jealous. There was a smattering of cuts and scrapes across my tear stained cheekbones and my brown eyes were bloodshot, like I hadn’t slept in 3 days.

And then it all hit me, like an eighteen-wheeler, traveling down I-95 at 80mph.

I tried to kill myself.

_I tried to kill myself._

“You have a lot of explaining to do, newbie.”

Mr. Stark walked, no _stormed_ , into the office like a bat out of hell and dropped an unreasonable amount of paperwork onto my desk.

“I did a background check on you last night. Didn’t really expect to find anything that interesting, considering first impressions and all, only to be proven wrong by a substantial amount of incriminating evidence.”

And then he began pacing.

“ _Sir…”_

“Apparently, you are friends with the heir to all that remains of Oscorp and it’s technologies. The company that I now own, by the way. You knew Osborn when you were young before he left to go to boarding school, per Daddy’s orders. After that, you went on to graduate high school at the tender age of 13. Yeah, great, whoop-dee-damn-do, another smart person in the world. But then, you got into MIT, full ride, with an interest in Biochemistry and Genetics. I mean, what is that about? And your dissertation on some project called R.E.G.A.L. that you want get started? I’m sorry, but have you gone on the Internet in the past 5 years? Nothing starting with the word ‘project’ ever ends well.”

“ _Sir, I really don’t think that-”_

“And then Osborn’s father dies, he shows up again, sees you, and somehow ends up in Ravencroft for two years, after no previous history of mental illness? And don’t even get me started on your mother. That’s a whole other can of worms, but we’ll get to that later. Your father, Leon Triplett, I couldn’t dig up that much information on, besides him being a History Professor at Columbia. But I did find that he just so happens to be the older brother to one Antoine Triplett- a man who _just so happens_ to works for SHIELD and all it subsidiaries. All facts that, ultimately point to you as a severely suspicious figure, especially to someone as smart and nosey as me. So, my question to you- and please be honest about this because I really don’t want to have to do the whole ‘Iron Man and the Avengers put the fear of God into you’ deal, seeing as it would be a massive waste of time, _is_ …”

Mr. Stark took a stance in front of me and slapped his palms down onto the glass dramatically.

“Are you or have you ever been a _Hydra agent_?”

“ _Mr. Stark!”_

He groaned and looked heavenward. “What is it Jarvis? Can’t you see I am conducting an interrogation of the enemy here?”

“ _I think it would be wise to retrieve some sort of pale or large container for Dr. Hyde_.”

Stark’s face scrunched up in confusion immediately.

“Why would I do that?”

Just as the words left his mouth, I threw up into the garbage can next to my desk- loudly and as unattractively as you can imagine.

“Well, that wasn’t the reaction I was expecting…”

I coughed a few times before grabbing a tissue from the box beside me and wiped my mouth. When I lifted my head I saw that the large plasma T.V. attached to the back wall of the room had been switched on, playing Eyewitness news. Footage was being shown on an endless loop, showcasing a distinctly red and blue figure swinging from buildings before catching a dark-haired woman falling in mid air. A breaking news bulletin was displayed at the bottom of the screen and read ‘SPIDER-MAN RETURNS’.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Stark whispered before turning back to me. He looked me over for a moment before turning back and forth between the screen and I a few times.

He stopped and appraised me again. “I thought you looked a little wrecked.”

That was the last thing I heard before I passed out.

 

* * *

 

**Bucky POV**

 

 

You know, I was really starting to hate this damn tower.

None other than Tony Stark was summoning me to, and I quote, ‘haul ass and get to the tower ASAP’. For what, he neglected to tell me, and I had half a mind not to show up at all. But if Stark had come down from his high horse to call me directly, it must have been somewhat important. And I couldn’t even drag Steve along with me because he was taking his girl, Darcy, out somewhere.

Just my fucking luck.

When I arrived, there were SHIELD agents flooding the place. Secretaries were being interviewed, weird tech I knew nothing about was being ushered through the lobby, and Pepper was out of her office, talking very animatedly with a suit who looked like he was about to shit his pants. Talk about hell hath no fury.

My phone pinged lightly and I pulled it out to see a new message.

\--------------------------------------------------

From: Tony Stark

**_Meet me in the infirmary on the 12 th floor Robo-Cop._ **

\--------------------------------------------------

This nickname shit was getting really old, really fast. Robo-Cop? What even was that? It sounded ridiculous.

I shoved my phone back into the pocket of my army jacket and made my way to the elevator.

The infirmary floor certainly wasn’t structured like any old hospital floor. The elevator let me off at the end of a long, curved hallway dimly lit with strips of blue framing the ceiling. One side of it was lined with floor to ceiling windows with a view of the Empire State Building, and the other had an opening to another hallway before the actual patient rooms were visible. Once they were, I noticed that the front wall and door of them were glass as well, making it very easy to see inside.

Wow, Stark really never does anything halfway, huh…

“There you are!” the man in question yelled from the hallway directly in front of the elevator and I.

Following the sound of his voice, I made my way to the end of the hall. The heels of my boots clicked against the marble floor lightly before stuttering as I took in the concentration of bodies in front of me. Besides Tony, there was Natasha, the archer, whose name I found out was _Clint_ , two agents and a man with thin brown hair and a poker face I recognized as the director of SHIELD.

Tony spoke again. “SHIELD has been here for a half an hour and they’re already making demands.” He folded his arms and looked at me. “Coulson told me to call you, if you thought we were getting chummy all of a sudden.”

“I would never think that, Stark,” I deadpanned.

The two agents stood in front of the door to a room I hadn’t past yet, speaking with Coulson. Natasha and Clint were closer to the windows on the left side of the space, staring into the room at something I couldn’t see. I could almost feel the tension coiled in their bodies, like they were preparing for something. It sent me on edge as well.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

Stark shrugged. “Eh, no big deal. I was interrogating your newbie friend after she came in. Turns out she fell off a roof this morning and got saved by some Spider guy from two years ago. I tried to get some info out of Coulson but he’s not cracking. Seems like he got meaner after coming back from the dead.”

My eyes blinked a few times before I fully comprehended everything that came out of Tony’s mouth.

_Subject deemed suspicious after reevaluation. Further information required._

“Why were you interrogating her?”

Stark gave me a strange look before laughing. “After everything that I just said, _that_ is what you chose to ask me about?”

He continued laughing, so much so that he caught Natasha and Clint’s attention. Once he calmed down, his hand landed on my metal shoulder with a light thump.

“Never change, Tin Man. Never change.”

“Sargent Barnes.”

I shrugged Stark’s hand off my shoulder and looked toward Director Coulson as he approached.

I still hated that Sargent bullshit.

“You called for me, Sir.”

The director stopped in front of me before staring at Stark with abrasive eyes.

“I’d like to speak to Sargent Barnes alone if you don’t mind, Mr. Stark.”

He scoffed. “Are you dismissing me? In my own tower?”

“If you’d like to think of it that way, then, yes.”

The look on Stark’s face was priceless. Honestly, I wish I had a camera.

As put off as he was, Stark seemed to sense the seriousness in Coulson’s words and went to stand by his fellow teammates, grumbling the whole time.

“Now that that’s over with,” Coulson cleared his throat. “I’d like to offer you a job. Or a mission, rather.”

My muscles clenched in excitement at the prospect.

“Does it involve Hydra, sir?”

“No. At least not yet, it doesn’t. It involves someone you’ve already had the pleasure of meeting. Dr. Jacqueline Hyde.”

I narrowed my eyes.

There was so much more to this woman than meets the eye and I wanted to find that out, but what did Coulson want with her?

He must have noticed the confusion in my eyes because he decided to go on.

“I’m assigning her to be your new detail.”

My body stilled immediately.

 _Detail_? Detail. Was he joking? The director of SHIELD was asking me, an ex-Hydra operative whose killed hundreds of people over the last 75 years, to protect someone. Hell must have frozen over and someone forgot to tell me.

“With all do respect, sir,” I straightened my stance and folded my arms. “I’m not a baby sitter.”

Coulson chuckled. “Dr. Hyde is a grown woman, Barnes. The last thing I think she needs, or wants, is a babysitter. However, she does need to be protected. And I believe that you are the best man for the job.”

Coulson paused. “If you take this job, you’ll be guaranteed for the fast track to join SHIELDs field mission to track down the remnants of Hydra. I can promise you that.”

I looked up immediately and stared.

“Captain Rogers expressed your interest in the matter once or twice.”

My lip twitched up unwillingly. He really was looking out for me- a role reversal I wasn’t quite used to yet.

I sighed deeply. The cogs were turning in my head faster than I could gather all the information I was being given.

I wanted to be out in the field. I wanted to get my revenge on the sick bastards that ruined my life and took away my past. And I would make them pay for it in full.

I also wanted, no, _needed_ to figure this woman out. I hated mysteries and liked secrets even less. If this was my only way of solving the enigma that was Jacqueline Hyde, I would take the opportunity in stride.

“Where would you like me to report to sir?”

Director Coulson smiled in approval before nodding. “Keep track of her movements when she’s out and about. Make sure she gets home all right. Don’t let her get into any trouble. It should be easiest when she’s at work here. Call me with updates every week. Simple as that.”

So, the usual then.

“Thank you sir.”

“You’re welcome, Barnes. And make sure you get that arm checked out soon. Don’t want it blowing up on you.”

Coulson held out his hand to me and I shook it firmly, smirking.

I guess I had to stay here longer than I was planning too, then.

He had just fallen back into his position by the SHIELD agents when a scrawny twenty-something man with a mop of untidy brown hair and disheveled work clothes came rushing down toward us from the elevator. He had a pin attached to his jacket that read ‘Daily Bugle Press’ in bold black ink.

Clint and Natasha approached him quickly, stopping him in his tracks.

“Who keeps letting people who don’t work here into my tower? I swear, someone is getting fired,” I heard Tony say.

“No, I know I don’t work here! I’m looking for my friend,” the man’s voice was high and frantic.

“And you also work for a newspaper who loves bashing superheroes. So forgive us for being cautious,” Clint said with a hand on his chest.

“I’m not here for a quote! I’m here to make sure my friend is okay. Her name is Jac, Jac Hyde. She’s a doctor.” He threw his hands up. “Someone called me for Christ sake!”

Coulson approached the group then and cleared his throat.

“That would be me. This way, Mr. Parker. Dr. Hyde is being tended to.”

Director Coulson led the young man into the patient room I hadn’t seen. I guess I found my new detail then.

 

* * *

 

**Jac POV**

 

 

“I feel fine, Dr. Banner,” I insisted for the thousandth time.

He pushed his thin glasses further up the bridge of his nose and checked the charts in front of him. “That very well may be, but I just want to check everything and make sure.”

Ugh, all I wanted to do was go home. This day had been terrible enough. It was my first day and I had already made the wrong impression. I walked in looking like I had been through hell and back (which I kind of had), threw up in my new office, and Tony Stark thought I was a spy.

And here I sat, in the infirmary of Stark Tower, bandaged up, blood taken, and in an officially licensed ‘Stark Industries’ t-shirt because my button down and blazer had been fucked up beyond repair.

I really loved Peter and I knew he was out of practice at the whole ‘hero’ thing, but he really couldn’t have set me down a little gentler after catching me? We ended up being thrown against a garbage dumpster, rolled off it and landed on the cement of a disgusting alleyway. But I shouldn’t be complaining. At least I was alive, with no help from myself.

The stress running through my veins was nowhere near ebbing as I thought through the events of the day. And I still had to explain everything to my father…

Bruce must have noticed how worried I was because he placed his free hand on my shoulder awkwardly, trying for a comforting gesture. My eyes lifted from my hands in my lap to his when he gained my attention.

“I wouldn’t worry too much, Dr. Hyde. Your first day was no where near as bad as mine.”

A laugh bubbled free from my lips then. He was right. Things could have gone much worse, _a lot_ worse.

“And if it’s worth anything, I am looking forward to working with you in the labs.” He released me and smiled a small, tentative smile before going back to his work.

I returned the smile bashfully before my gaze shifted to the outside of the room and I saw that the sun was going down. The scary red head and the blonde weren’t standing in front of the room anymore, watching me like a hawk, either. You would have thought I’d killed their first-born child with the way they were staring. Well, it was mainly just the red head- hence, scary.

The two suited men in front of the glass door to my room stepped aside then and two others came into view. One of them, I knew very well.

“Oh my god, Peter!”

My body rose from it’s place on the infirmary bed and I ended up in Peter’s arms as we met each other halfway.

I caught him around the ribs and gripped his shoulder blades, pressing myself against his much warmer form. God, he was skinny, but I didn’t care as much as I usually would have. In that moment, I just needed my best friend.

Peter squeezed me right back and rubbed his hand up and down my back too quickly to be soothing. He had been worried, too. One of his hands left my back to stroke my hair, which I had tamed earlier to look somewhat presentable.

“I almost lost you today,” he said in a choked whisper against my forehead. Tears began to prickle in my eyes at the sound. God, this was the worst.

His hands lifted my face up to his after a moment, shaking slightly.

He spoke firmly. “Don’t ever do that to me again. I’m serious, Jac.”

Peter was giving me a look- a look that said, ‘no more jumping off of things taller than you are’.

I nodded slowly before noticing the other individual who had walked in behind Peter. He was a middle aged man, professional looking, who meant business. But he also had laugh lines so that was a good sign.

Bruce cleared his throat lightly, making Peter and I redirect our attention but not separate.

“You should be fine, Dr. Hyde. But if you experience any headaches or dizziness at all later tonight, visit a hospital. You may have a concussion.”

“Thank you, Dr. Banner.”

He nodded slightly before making his way out of the room, leaving me with Peter and Tux-Guy.

“Dr. Hyde, I’m Phil Coulson, Director of SHIELD. I called your friend after the incident and I also let your father know you were okay. I hope that was alright.”

I blinked at him and Peter dropped his hands from my face.

SHIELD. _Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Divisio_ n.

I knew it well. They had tried recruiting me when I’d graduated high school, but as a minor, my father turned them down for me. He told me that his experience with SHIELD in the past and my Uncle Antoine’s current involvement with them was enough for a lifetime, for the Triplett family. He didn’t speak about his past with them much and I knew better than to ask. After the Hydra takeover two years ago, I was glad my father had taken the initiative.

“I would be surprised if you hadn’t.”

Peter dropped his hands from me and looked at me strangely.

He didn’t know about any of my family’s relationship with SHIELD and it hadn’t been important to tell him, especially with the fact that he was trying to keep his identity a secret. The last thing we needed was for him to start acting weird around my father because he though he was a spy.

Director Coulson smiled before looking at me apologetically. “I know this is all quite sudden and, after the day you’ve had I’m sure the last thing you want to do is sit here with me. But I do need to ask you a few questions about what happened today.”

I bit my lip and looked toward Peter fleetingly. He nodded in encouragement before he walked me back over to the bed to sit.

I turns out SHIELD knew more about Harry Osborne than I thought they did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW


	8. You Are My Mission

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all :)
> 
> I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW. I’m a terrible person for making you guys wait for so long and you have every right to hate me. It was just so hard for me to get this one out. Not really sure what it was. But I would rather delay the update and make it great for you guys then update quickly and it be mediocre. Many apologies again to all of you. But thank you for keeping up with the story. I really do love it and I’m very happy with how everything is unraveling. Stay tuned because more surprises are on the way!
> 
> So without further ado…
> 
> HAPPY READING!!!!!!

**Chapter 7: You Are My Mission**

**Jac POV**

To say my father was furious about having to hear about me falling off a building from the Director of SHIELD was a bit of an understatement.

He basically told me that he wouldn’t be letting me out of the house until I was thirty. But I was an adult and I had a job, and a life to get back to. I couldn’t just drop everything because he was worried about me. Bad things happened to people everyday, and I was no exception. Granted, not everyone was being pursued by a criminally insane super-villain, but I could handle it… At least, I hoped that I could.

During the interview, Director Coulson asked me the basics: what, where, when, who, why, and how. Naturally, I was a little stumped on the why and the how of the situation. Coulson, who didn’t seem too surprised about Harry’s involvement, told me that he had been released from Ravencroft earlier that morning after being deemed ‘no longer a danger to society’ by some unidentified doctor he had been seeing since his lock-up. SHIELD was looking into it. But then the questions started about my relationship to Harry and I conveniently neglected to mention that we slept together the night before everything went to hell. Lord knows I wasn’t spilling the beans about that, especially with Peter in the room. I told Coulson that I saw Harry on the street and then suited men chased me to the top of an apartment building and, in fear for my life, I jumped. Not a complete lie, just an omission of certain details.

When I was standing on that ledge that day, looking at the man who changed my life forever, my brain was clouded by hate and disdain. But now when I think back on it, ultimately, I don’t believe that Harry would have hurt me. After all of the terrible things he’d done, there was still a piece of the old Harry that I knew, and _that_ Harry was the one I was giving the second chance to. Maybe even a second chance at life…because I did still have the cure. All I had to do now was decide what to do with it.

Miss Potts was very considerate about the whole ordeal, even gave me a couple of days to ‘recuperate’ before returning to work. I used the time off to move things into my new apartment in Park Slope with Peter. My father, despite the grumbling and grousing, assisted us with the transfer along with Aunt May. Peter and my father refused to let her carry anything remotely heavy so she ended up keeping busy with organizing the entire kitchen and living room.

In the interim of unpacking boxes in my own room, my mind drifted. If my first experiences were any inclination, working at Stark Tower would be interesting to say the least. Getting into Tony Stark’s good graces wasn’t at the top of my goals but I at least didn’t want him thinking I was a spy. I mean, me? Hydra? The prospect was almost laughable.

Bruce Banner, on the other hand, I genuinely liked. He, from my impression of him, was a shy, gentle soul who liked keeping to himself. He was so mild mannered that it was hard to believe he could transform into a giant green…thing. I didn’t believe the word ‘monster’ was applicable to Dr. Banner in any sense, science experiment gone wrong or not. And then there was James, _Just_ James.

I didn’t know much about him. Actually, I knew next to nothing. Did he work at the tower or not? Tony didn’t exactly make it seem like he was welcome, so I doubted it. James could very well be just a regular man who seemed to know a lot of superheroes. It happened- I was a perfect example of that. The only definitive information that I had was that he had metal arm that looked way too sophisticated technologically to be a government hand out, his dog was insanely cute (and a little bit in love with me), and he may be friends with Captain America. It was beside the fact that he was drop dead fucking gorgeous.

From the grey-blue eyes to the sharp shadowed jaw line, his looks were certifiably dangerous. But he had this way about him that I couldn’t exactly put my finger on. James seemed older and wiser than he appeared, as if he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders wherever he went. It was the kind of look someone could only get through seeing things, things that haunted your dreams and sat behind your eyelids, waiting for you. Peter got the same look about him sometimes, which made me even more curious as to what made James seem quite so sad.

 

* * *

 

“My plan is to create something that can function as it’s own entity but still be controlled to a certain point. It’s mainly an insurance policy of sorts, in case ‘the other guy’ ever got out of hand…”

I stared at Dr. Banner as he came to the end of the explanation of his new project. The Vision, he called it. He and Tony had decided to work on their new developments separately because Tony wanted his to ‘be a surprise’. Whatever that means. Having the fact that he was still suspicious about my working here, and me as a whole, Bruce took me out of my misery and suggested I work with him. However, after hearing the description of the project, it seemed Bruce may have had another motivation for taking me on.

“So, this android body is going to be a functioning replica of the human body…” I trailed off.

“Yes,” Dr. Banner agreed.

“And it will contain analogues to virtually all human organs and tissues.”

He nodded and pursed his lips, understanding what I was getting at.

“And what you need now, to do all of that, is an artificial material that can mimic all the functions of human tissue, but be several times stronger and more durable.”

Dr. Banner shrugged in the most adorable way and shifted from foot to foot, afraid that he was asking too much, I would guess.

Laughing lightly, I got up from my stool against the large lab table in front of us with Bruce standing across from me. This project was going to be a challenge, but I loved challenges. They gave me a goal to strive toward and were a reminder of why I was doing all this in the first place. If this android would help Bruce get a handle on his condition, then I was game. It also helped that scientists worked in a tit-for-tat fashion for the most part. If I helped Bruce now, it was almost guaranteed that he would assist me in the projects that I hoped to begin later. Everyone wins.

“I guess we better get started then, Dr. Banner,” I smirked at him and picked up the pad I was taking notes in.

He breathed out a chuckle a fiddled with the instruments in front of him for a moment before nodding.

“It’s perfectly fine for you to call me Bruce, Dr. Hyde.”

I looked at him for a moment before a smile broke out that hurt my face. Maybe this transition wouldn’t be as painful as I thought.

A pale young woman, around my age, with dark hair and slim black glasses came through the automatic glass door then, balancing two Styrofoam cups and an apple between her hands. She was dressed in casual clothes and wore a bright smile that could light up a room.

“Hey Bruce, I got your tea for you,” she said as her eyes rose to he and I at the table. “Oh! You must be the new doctor Pepper told us about.”

She placed both cups and the apple in front of Bruce and before he got the words ‘thank you’ out of his mouth, the woman thrust her hand in front of my face.

“I’m Darcy, Lewis. I work with Jane and Eric in the Astrophysics lab down the hall.”

My eyes widened a little at her enthusiasm so early in the morning, but I accepted the gesture nonetheless.

“Nice to meet you. I’m-”

She shook my hand vigorously for a moment.

Wow, strong grip.

“Jacqueline Hyde, Biochemical Engineering. I looked you up on Google.”

Well, that’s kind of flattering, I guess.

“Not in a creepy way or anything! I was just curious about the new addition to the team. I’ve looked up everyone on Google.”

“Oh, so your not a scientist then?” I inquired, genuinely curious.

“Nope,” she shrugged, dropping her hand. “Just a lowly assistant. I make sure Jane survives on food besides Poptarts and gets some sleep every now and then. I swear, the woman is like a space science-y machine. It would totally be scary if I wasn’t so used to it.”

A laughed bubbled from my lips. This girl was like the energizer bunny, but a more adorable, endearing version.

I smiled politely. “All scientists are similar in that way, I think. We tend to forget that were only human sometimes. I’ve had my fair share of all-nighters, not all related to my work exactly but…”

Darcy nodded excitedly.

“I know exactly what you mean. When I’m not running around for Jane, or visiting my boyfriend, Netflix is pretty much my best friend. And I made the terrible mistake of starting Doctor Who last night, which was pretty ridiculous since I know a couple of gorgeous, real-live aliens personally.” Darcy put her hands on her chest, unabashedly. “I mean, I love David Tennant and all, but he’s got nothing on Thor’s burly and beautiful bod.”

Doctor Who and hot Norse gods? I really was staring to like this girl.

“I’ve only seen him in pictures…” I trailed off again.

“Pictures do that alien man no justice, I promise. I can introduce you when he gets back from Asgard!”

She sighed for a moment and put her hand on her jean-clad hips.

“You know, it’s so refreshing talking to someone my own age. I love Jane and Eric and all, but with all these super heroes around, I was kind of losing my mind.”

I know first hand what that’s like…

Darcy checked the phone in her back pocket before shoving it back in its place.

“I guess I better get back.” She looked up at me and winked. “See you on the flip side, Hyde. We’ll hang out and get lunch later.”

I could tell from her tone of voice that it was more of a statement than a question. All I could do was nod and mumble a ‘sounds great’ before she left as quickly as she came.

“Shit, almost forgot Bucky’s coffee!”

Darcy skittered to a stop to grab one of the cups she’d placed in front of Bruce on her way out and my eyes widened at the name.

Bucky?

That was the name Captain America called James the day of my interview. The name itself sounded familiar but I couldn’t imagine why, beside that instance. I mean, it’s not everyday you meet someone with the name _Bucky_. Maybe he did work here after all.

“You’ll get used to her, I promise,” Bruce assured me.

My hand dropped the pencil that I had been tapping against my lip in concentration.

“Huh?”

“Darcy. She is a little high strung, but she is great worker.”

“She seems great,” I muttered, my thoughts elsewhere.

Bruce said something else about going to find something in another lab but I was so preoccupied, I barely caught his words. However, I did catch the man in question stepping through the door Bruce had just left through not five minutes later.

You have got to be _kidding me_.

James was wearing a dark wash jean jacket with a grey v-neck t-shirt beneath it and tan cargo pants with brown combat boots laced up to mid calf. His hair was pulled up into a sloppy bun with tendrils falling from it, framing his jaw. His face was the picture of impassiveness and he held the second cup Darcy had brought in here earlier in his metal hand.

The air was knocked out of my lungs immediately and I felt a rush of heat rise to my neck and cheeks and other unmentionable parts. Thank god I was dark-skinned because otherwise, I would have been red as a fucking fire truck.

I haven’t seen him in days, haven’t _talked_ to him since the park, and all of a sudden he walks in looking like he just hopped out of a Diesel ad and I’m half way ready to throw my underwear at him.

Now, I don’t believe in fate or any of that kind of stuff, but this was really starting to get ridiculous.

“What the f-” I hissed beneath my breath, releasing my bottom lip from between my teeth at the sight before me.

I swear, this man was going to kill me.

 

* * *

 

**Bucky POV**

 

 

After trailing Hyde for almost a week straight, something very important became blatantly clear to me: she was a normal 22 year old woman. Well, as normal as any 22 year old woman can be with genius level intellect.

I started out using the traditional stake out method at first, but quickly realized that it wouldn’t get me anywhere I needed to be in terms of finding out the right information. The first mountain to climb was finding out just who was after her, if there was anyone at all. Traditionally speaking, people don’t just fall off buildings for no reason.

Coulson had given me next to no background on her but my new best friend, the Internet, covered the basics. She was apart of a couple social networking sites and had something called a Wikipedia page. Although I’d figured out some valuable contextual information, i.e. frequent patterns of movement, the most puzzling part of the mystery wasn’t solved. If Hyde was so normal, why did the Director of SHIELD want me protecting her? What was so special about her that made her so valuable to them? Her work and her intelligence set her apart but there were other scientists in the world. Regardless of my frustrations about the unknown variables, I had mastered the art of patience in the last 75 years and that would certainly help in this case.

Hyde had just moved into her new apartment in Park Slope with the kid who had visited her in the infirmary and I was fairly clear of the parameters of their relationship thus far. But the way they were around each other was interesting. They seemed to have the camaraderie of teammates, the foolish arguments between siblings, and a connection that rang of true love. The bond between the two was the rare kind- the kind that doesn’t falter through time or disagreement or circumstance but an intangible one that you could feel without seeing. It reminded me of Steve and I and the ridiculous amount of faith he had in me.

After all these years and the things I did for Hydra, he saw me as I was now, not as I was before. He helped me forge my new identity and I knew without him, I never would’ve gotten even half as far. Steve was with me till the end of the line, and I could tell that Hyde thought of her friend Peter in the same sentiment- even if the kid did keep ridiculous hours of the night.

“Hey!”

I turned at the loud and slightly raspy voice coming from down the hall of the laboratory level and smirked at the familiarity.

“Hey, yourself,” I replied, crossing my arms over my chest.

Darcy was on her way over to me, with a cup in her grip that I knew wasn’t hers. She stopped in front of me and punched my flesh and blood arm with her empty fist.

“You should’ve told me you were coming in, doofus. I would have brought you breakfast.”

I feigned a look of pain and rubbed where she had hit me.

“Jeeze, Lewis, you’re packing quite a punch there. Steve been giving you lessons?”

“Oh, shut up,” Darcy said, all but shoving the hot cup of Joe at me. “Black, two sugars, right?”

I raised the cup to my lips and took a long sip.

“On the money, Darce. Still can’t believe you remember how I take my coffee. I’ve drank it, what, once around you?”

Darcy suddenly looked proud of herself before pursing her full lips and raising her chin.

“I have a natural affinity for memorizing people’s food and beverage patterns. I blame the scientist brigade.”

“Oh, really,” I hummed. “I just might have to steal you away from Steve with that talent you got there, doll.”

Darcy raised an eyebrow before laughing lightly.

“Don’t forget the boobs. I have awesome boobs.”

“And those baking skills of yours?”

My right hand slapped against my chest and I pretended to swoon.

“I’ll bake them for you anytime, Barnes, but this cookie?” Darcy gestured to the space beyond the waistband of her jeans and I almost howled with laughter. “Not for sale. And besides, the star spangled man you call your best friend would kill you.”

I tried to imagine, for a moment, Steve seeing me attempt to steal from Darcy’s proverbial cookie jar and chuckled. Dead man, I sure would be.

I nodded in agreement and took another sip of Joe. “You’ve got me there.”

She patted me on the shoulder lightly before making her way back where she had come.

Darcy was a singular woman and Steve was a lucky man to have snatched her up. From what I remembered, she was exactly the type of girl I would’ve gone for back in the day: curves for days and a smart mouth to go with them. That type of girl was perfect for the old me, but I was different now. And hell, I was happy for Steve, but that happiness didn’t take away from the envy I felt when I saw them together. I wasn’t jealous of him having Darcy, I was jealous of him having _someone_. Having friends is great and all, but nothing compares to having a warm body next to yours to help chase away the nightmares. That was the part I missed most of all, the sense of protection that comes with having a home to come back to.

It surprised me that Darcy didn’t ask why I was at the tower in the first place, seeing as she loved gossip almost as much as Stark did. But I was glad she didn’t, because the last thing I need was her blabbing to Steve about my new job. The list of reasons as to why I hadn’t told him yet was short but concise- number one being, he had enough to worry about.

Speaking of the new job, it was about time to go check in on her. Last I’d checked, she was working in the physics lab with Dr. Banner.

Now, Hyde was alone, sitting at the large chrome table near the far wall. The image of a robotic figure was displayed behind her against one of the clear screens surrounding the perimeter of the room.  She’d taken off the leather jacket she’d worn into the building that morning and swapped it out for a white lab coat that grazed the top of her thighs. Beneath it, she wore grey skirt and a red button down that looked amazing against her dark skin. Dark hair fell in waves around her shoulders and hid most of her face as she hunched over the table.

The glass door whirred softly as it opened for me, gaining Hyde’s attention. Her teeth released the rosy bottom lip she had in her grip before she jumped slightly in her seat.

Hm, jumpy was she…

“What the f-…” she hissed.

I walked through the threshold with my free palm open.

“I didn’t mean to scare you.”

She swallowed hard as she watched me step forward and move toward the middle of the room.

“You didn’t. Just surprised me, is all.” Her body shifted toward mine and she crossed her ankles at the base of the stool. “Did you need something?”

“Yeah, I do, actually.”

I moved the coffee to my right hand and lifted my left arm from my side and wiggled my fingers a bit. “I’m here for a tune up. I usually swing by SHIELD headquarters to get it done, but I figured, since I was here, I might as well kill two birds with one stone.”

If I valued anything nowadays, it was efficiency.

“Oh…”

Hyde looked taken aback for a moment at my proposal and eyed me in disbelief.

“Are you sure you want me looking at that?”

I dropped my arm.

From what I had read up on the woman, her know-how made her more than capable of handling this thing. At the very least, I knew she had enough sense to keep it from blowing up.

“Well, Banner isn’t here, Foster and Selvig specialize in something involving space that I can’t even pronounce, and I don’t want Stark messing with anything attached to my body. I heard that you’re good with machinery.”

Hyde blinked a few times before rising from her seat and pulling another from beneath the table in front of her. She pushed it out closer to me and gestured.

“Might as well make yourself comfortable.”

My mouth twitched up as I sat down at the edge of the table and watched as she went about the room, looking for the right equipment, I assumed.

The way her body moved was curious. Every step she took seemed effortless and yet calculated at the same time. It reminded me of a snake moving through grass, smooth and poised but guarded and aware of its surroundings. I would not be able to sneak up on her again.

My body was angled so that my left side was facing her front for easy access after she had sat back down. Hyde placed a few gadgets on the table beside her before looking up at me again shyly.

Her hands twitched toward my arm for a moment before she noticed the jacket.

“Do you think you could…”

If she wanted to get me out of my clothes, she should have just said so.

Without another word, I shrugged myself out of the contraption and placed it behind me with my coffee, offering the arm to her. Hyde stared at it for a few moments, but not in the way people usually did- with contempt or pity. She looked at the arm like it was the most fascinating thing she’d ever seen.

Her chocolaty eyes were sparkling with wonder before she caught the arm around the wrist and began her observation. After a beat, her gaze rose to mine again but this time she looked timid.

“How did you lose it?” she asked softly, holding the arm with both hands.

I expected the question would come up but I was surprised at her forwardness. There was an echo of a sad kind of curiosity in her voice, but again, pity was absent.

“I fell…” I admitted, remembering the day and the terror that coursed through my veins. “I lost most of it in the fall. They must’ve just decided to just scrap the rest and give me a new one.”

The efficiency habit was a learned one from the Hydra days. One of the less terrible things I’d inherited from them.

My eyes fell back to Hyde’s lips as she bit the bottom one again before her tongue flicked out to soothe the area. Damn, that’s distracting.

“It’s pretty high tech.” My eyes flashed away from the sight at her words. “I’ve never seen an appendage like this before. The metal seems less dense than it looks.”

Hyde turned my arm over, palm up and moved her fingers up the inside of it. I clenched my jaw and made a tight fist at the sensation. It had been so long since someone had touched my like that, let alone, been in such close proximity with me. With her head down, a vanilla and jasmine scent rose from her to me. A sudden impulse to move closer was staunched by a prickling sensation in the crook of my elbow.

My arm jumped involuntarily and Hyde pulled away immediately.

A look of panic struck her features as she leaned back, her eyes wide and worried.

“Did I hurt you?”

I laughed lightly and shook my head a couple times. “That tickles.”

She furrowed her brows and looked down again. “You can feel that?”

“Yeah…”

Hyde’s lips quirked up suddenly as she went back to work.

This woman’s smile was a knockout and a half. I don’t think I was getting used to it anytime soon.

“That’s incredible,” she shook he head with barely contained excitement and finally found a way to open the damn thing. “You can feel everything in this arm as you can in the other?”

I shrugged. “For the most part. The pain sensation is different, but I can feel it just the same.”

Hyde nodded, in contemplation, as if she were jotting down all of the things I had told her on an invisible note pad in her mind, to be studied later. She picked up one of the gadgets from the table that was no thicker than a ballpoint pen and got busy.

A soft buzzing sound came from it and I felt a slight vibration move through my left side as she worked.

“So, uh, do you work here, or…”

I narrowed my eyes at her. Maybe she wanted to know what I did before I was assigned to her. If she did, I couldn’t exactly tell her I was a Russian assassin brainwashed into killing hundreds of people. No that there was an easy way to say that anyhow.

“I’m not on the payroll, if that’s what you mean. But I guess I do, now.”

Hyde paused between switching instruments before continuing.

“What do _you_ mean?”

Fucking shit. Tell me I didn’t just dig myself my own grave right now.

She touched something on the inside of the arm with her bare hand before the opening she’d made closed in on itself, sliding shut with a soft whir. The gadgets were placed back onto the table beside her before she pushed her chair back to look at me fully.

I huffed and grabbed my jacket from the table behind me. “Coulson didn’t tell you?”

Of course Coulson didn’t tell her. He doesn’t tell _me_ anything, so it would make perfect sense for him to be consistent in his cock-eyed fucking plans.

She gave me weird look and I knew from then on that it was all down hill.

“Director of SHIELD, Coulson? Is there something I’m _supposed_ to know?” she demanded.

Well, there’s no going back now.

I rolled my eyes and tugged my jacket onto my shoulders with a bit more force than necessary.

Just rip it like a band aid, Barnes.

“He assigned you to me as my detail,” I said with a sigh.

It took her a minute before she said anything, after which clear recognition flashed across her face.

“Detail,” she said it like it was a curse.

Hyde stood up from her seat as well and placed her hands on her hips, glaring at me. Her attempts at intimidation were priceless.

“You’re my bodyguard? Is that why I’ve been seeing you everywhere, because you’ve been _following_ me?”

And here comes the anger.

I huffed out one hard laugh before shoving my hands in my pants pockets. “Trust me, I’m much better at my job than that. The first few times we met were coincidence. I actually started to think you were trailing _me_.”

At this point, the idea of Hyde being a Hydra agent was so far away, it was laughable. This woman didn’t have one evil bone in her body, and I’d only known her for a couple of weeks.

She stared at me in outrage. “Why the hell would I be following you? I don’t even know who you are!”

 _Mother Mary and Joseph_. I really didn’t have time for this.

“No need to flip you wig, sweetheart. I could say the same for you,” I implored, with my right hand up in mock surrender.

Hyde’s arms crossed over her chest in the most hilarious way and I really couldn’t help but smirk.

The defiance was palpable in her stance. “Sweetheart?”

My smirk deepened. “Would you prefer, Doctor?”

“Yes. I would,” she growled through her teeth.

Banner couldn’t have come back through the door at a better time because I’m pretty sure that if I kept challenging her, she was going to attack me. And that would be problematic for a host of different reasons.

Bruce paused in the doorway at the sight of me but continued making his way back to the table. I was almost positive he could sense the tension between the two of us.

“Everything all right in here?”

Hyde looked about ready to strike and I stared back at her in amusement.

“Yeah, just peachy.”

Without another word, I turned on my heel and make my way out the way Dr. Banner had come.

Hyde was angry and rightfully so. If the situation was reversed and I found out that it was someone’s job to keep an eye on me all the time and I didn’t know, I’d be pissed as all hell. But this was the way SHIELD worked. They told you what they wanted to tell you when they wanted and didn’t really care about how you felt. It was frustrating beyond reason but there was nothing I could do about it. The only thing I could do was give her some space and work from there.

“Wait!”

I was about halfway down the hall when Hyde after me, her hells click-clacking against the marble floor.

“I’m sorry,” she huffed, stopping in front of me. “I shouldn’t have acted like that- it was rude. I just wasn’t expecting…all of that.”

I shrugged non-committedly. “Don’t worry about it. I just figured you knew.”

“Yeah…” she ground her teeth. “Coulson will be getting a very strongly worded email on the matter.”

What?

“ _Strongly worded email_? Wow, I’m shaking in my boots for him.”

Hyde threw me a look and crossed her arms again. I had a feeling that this was a sort of trend for her when she got annoyed.

“You know, for someone who’s employed as a bodyguard, you don’t seem very professional.”

“This isn’t exactly my area of expertise. I’m more of a field worker.”

Amongst other deadly things…

“So you’re a spy then.”

“Not exactly,” I answered, my lip twitching up briefly.

“Well, since we may have gotten off on the wrong foot…”

Hyde sighed deeply and dropped her hands from her chest before offering one to me. “Jacqueline Hyde.”

I accepted her offer in good faith and shook her right hand with mine. Feeling her with my flesh and blood hand was so different from the latter, but not exactly in a bad way. And she still had a surprisingly firm grip.

“James Barnes, pleasure to meet you.”

Hyde nodded before smiling again and releasing me.

“And, you don’t actually have to call me Doctor, by the way.”

“I wasn’t planning on it, sweetheart.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW


	9. Getting to Know You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all :)
> 
> Welcome to another installment! Hope you guys have liked the story so far because I haven’t been getting that much feedback, but I hope that changes soon! I love that you guys are keeping up with the story because I really do hold it close to my heart. More developments soon, I promise. 
> 
> Were almost at 25,000 words!! When did that happen???
> 
> ANNNNNNDDDD we’re almost a third done with the story as well.
> 
> I hope you like the little surprise I left you guys in this chapter :)
> 
> So without further ado…
> 
> HAPPY READING!!!!!!

**Chapter 8: Getting to Know You**

**Jac POV**

 

 

I am an idiot, a complete and total idiot.

It’s been a week since I’ve been back to work and something has been bothering me about James. Well, a lot of things bother me about him. He’s crude, arrogant, and he follows me everywhere I go. Even when I can’t see him, I know he’s there and it drives me insane. I can’t even curse him out in French because he speaks the damn language!

Beside all that, I couldn’t place him. The name Bucky was so familiar to me and I couldn’t for the life of me imagine why. That was until I came across some of the things my dad had given me when I moved in to my new place. Among the scrapbooks and old photos of the Triplett family, one in particular caught my eye. It was of my great grandfather, Gabe Jones, with the rest of the Howling Commandoes in 1944 during the war. I’d seen the picture about a thousand times before but never through the vantage point that I had now. Standing to the left of Captain America was an annoyingly familiar face- he had shorter hair and a smile but there was no mistaking him for anyone but James. The names of the men were written clearly on the back of the photo in script and sure enough, the name ‘Bucky Barnes’ was written along with them.

After going over the variables in my head, nothing made sense, or very little of it. The chances of James being this Barnes’ ancestor _and_ looking exactly like him were almost impossible. That shit only happened in movies- I’m a scientist, I would know. Captain America was frozen in ice and due to the super soldier serum, survived in stasis before being found decades later. But what was James’ excuse? During a little trip to Google, my fantastic suspicions were confirmed while reading over an excerpt detaining the recent dedication to the Commandoes at the Smithsonian in DC:

_“Best friends since childhood, Bucky Barnes and Steven Rogers were inseparable on both school yard and battlefield. After being captured by troops on the Italian Front with the rest of the 107 th, Barnes endured long periods of isolation, deprivation, and torture before being liberated by his childhood friend. Together, they formed and led the group we know today as the Howling Commandoes. During their efforts to seize and capture Dr. Arnim Zola of Hydra, the Nazi rouge science division, Barnes was attacked aboard the train and fell to his death over the French Alps. Barnes is the only Commando to give his life in service of his country…”_

James’ words rang in my ears again…

_“I fell… I lost most of it in the fall. They must’ve just decided to scrap the rest and give me a new one.”_

In the words of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. There was no doubt in my mind that James Barnes, my newly founded bodyguard, was the same man who had supposedly died seventy-odd years ago in WWII. He had survived along with Steve Rogers, in unidentified circumstances, but here they both were today, in the 21st century, two men out of time…

I knew those men weren’t alive today because of magic, or the supernatural, or divine intervention- that was science. And everything that I had witnessed in my 22 years in living had not compared to this, but somehow, I knew that the strange occurrences were nowhere near over. Something was coming, and I hoped that when it did, I was ready for it.

* * *

 

I really do like her, but I am going to kill Darcy Lewis.

Now, I pride myself on being a realist when it comes to the world, but one thing I hate is when people volunteer me for shit that I never wanted to do in the first place. Darcy did that today and the end result was me, going out to lunch, with James. Alone. _At a diner_.

All because she had to bail on me last minute for some kind of Jane related emergency, but not before she invited _my bodyguard_ along with us. Apparently, they knew each other through her boyfriend, who just-so-happened to be Steve Rogers-or Captain America… I really didn’t know what to call him at this point, never having met him before. All I knew was that I did not want to spend any more time with James than need be, on basic principal…and a little bit because I didn’t trust him, but that’s semantics- never mind the sensation I got from shaking his hand the other day.

I stared at the 50s-esque menu in front of me without really seeing it before glancing at James from over the top.

His auburn hair was down today, something I’d never seen before. His elbows sat on top of the table and balanced the hands folded under his chin. He was wearing a green army jacket that covered both arms and his eyes were searching around the place like he was looking for something specific.

 _Scoping out for danger, obviously_.

Oh my god, that sounds ridiculous. We were in Hell’s Kitchen though and the increase in crime in the past few years was awful. But I was hungry and the Times Square Diner and Grill was one of the best places, that wasn’t swarmed with people during lunch time, to eat.

James had stopped cataloging the place by now but he still hadn’t touched his menu.

“You know what you’re going to order?” I asked without looking at him and heard a scoff in reply.

“All these diners are they same, aren’t they?”

My eyes rolled heavenward before I laid the menu hiding my face down onto the table.

“I guess,” I said, shrugging. “Depends on what you want really.”

James eyed me speculatively for a moment, as if he were observing a painting in an art museum and was trying to find the right vantage point. It rose goose bumps against my skin.

“And what do you want?”

I had a feeling he wasn’t just talking about food.

Oh, no. Was it just me or were his eyes more grey than blue today? Looking at him was like staring into the eye of a storm. You wanted to get away, but the raw power and presence of it stole your attention and made you positively immobile. There was no way I was getting out of this.

I wet my lips and fiddled with my silverware.

“Right now, I’d like you to stop staring at me like that.”

“Like what?”

The amusement in his voice was evident.

“Like I’m a puzzle to be figured out.”

James narrowed his steely eyes at me for a moment, surprised by my answer, I would guess, and sat back into the booth. His mouth quirked up into a crooked smile and my breath caught a little. God dammit.

“That’s all right. I think I’ve got you pretty figured out already,” his voice rumbled deep in his chest. Fuck, that should sound as sexy as it does.

Mr. Know-It-All-Secret-Spy-Man thinks he has me figured out. Yeah, we’ll see about that.

A blonde woman in her 20s stopped by our table then before pulling a notepad from her pocket. Her ivory cheeks were flushed with red as she looked James’ way and I groaned inwardly. Good god, woman, not you too.

“My names Katie and I’ll be your server today. What can I get for you?” her voice sounded two octaves lower than it normally would be and she directed her words to James, not bothering to glance my way at all.

Well, then. I guess I’ve become invisible.

“Hey doll,” James murmured, unleashing all of his disarming charm onto the woman. Does he always do this? I wonder if it gets on Steve’s nerves just as much.

“I’m gonna have a deluxe cheeseburger with fries and a chocolate milkshake, no cherry on top.”

Jeeze, I guess he really did know what he wanted.

“And for your friend?”

 _Katie_ got busy to scribbling his order down before turning to me like it physically hurt her body to do so. She’s really going to be hurting in a minute if she doesn’t wipe that fucking look off her face.

“The _friend_ will have a chicken Caesar salad with an iced tea,” I spoke extra sweetly, killing her with kindness. “Please, and thank you.”

With her feathers dutifully ruffled, she scurried back to the kitchen.

People like that never get old. Like she honestly couldn’t believe that someone who looks like _me_ would be sitting down, having lunch with an attractive white male like James. In the past, I’d received a fair amount of looks similar to that when I went out with Peter and every time it happened, he made a point to make it seem like we were dating. It was a little game we developed and laughed about later on, but it still sucked. Just when you thought the world had gotten better, someone does something that proves you wrong. And the saddest part of it was that I was used to it. Being employed in the science field as a female and black was the utmost minority and I had the battle scars to prove it- metaphorically speaking, that is.

James raised his eye at me. “You came to a diner to order a salad?”

I sighed. “I’m training tonight.”

If I ate anything more than a salad right now, I would be throwing up like there was no tomorrow when Danny got his hands on me later.

“Why is that?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why are you fight training?” he asked outright. “You go to Jones and Son. It’s your great-uncle Percy’s down in East Flatbush. I know ‘cause I go there too, but I’m just curious as to why when you could be doing something simpler.”

I narrowed my eyes at him.

Of _fucking_ course we go to the same _motherfucking_ gym. Heaven forbid we do anything apart.

“I thought you had me all figured out,” I said, pulling my glass of water to my lips, and sipping heartily.

James’ crooked smile appeared again and he shrugged his shoulders.

“Just answer me that one.”

Telling him the whole truth wasn’t going to happen, but bits and pieces I could manage. I could even use this to my advantage- tit-for-tat was a great thing.

“Um,” my throat cleared. “Well, I met Danny through my father. He was consulting him about something for one of his history classes at Columbia. Apparently, he has first hand experience with some kind of civilization out in Nepal that my father was researching. That was about 5 years ago.”

This was the hard part.

“Two years ago, there was a blackout in the city and everything just went to hell.”

_***************_

**_Everyone in the power plant was dead- with cauterized wounds through the chest. To my great relief, Harry was not among them, but I had to find him before he caused even more damage than he already had._ **

**_As I made my way out of the building lights jumped back and forth and there was a distinct crackle of energy in the air._ **

**_It was_ him _._**

**_Electro’s body was reassembling itself and once his feet touched the ground, I stepped back as I finally saw him as he really was. His skin was a shocking color of blue with veins of a darker shade laced through his entire body, flowing and shifting with every move he made._ **

**_“Where is Harry?” I asked as my voice shook._ **

**_“Mmm,” He hummed. “You must be the girl he was talking about… Jacqueline…”_ **

**_A deep shiver ran through me. His voice had an unnatural echo to it that resonated and set me on edge. Electro turned from me and began pacing slowly back and forth._ **

**_“Must be nice…to be needed by someone like that.” He rubbed his fingers together lightly and I watched with wide eyes as sparks jumped between them. “It’s too bad he’s already a dead man.”_ **

**_“That’s why I’m here. I’m trying to help him, I want to save him!”_ **

**_In the blink of an eye, Electro was on me with one cerulean hand around my throat, lifting me from the ground._ **

**_“AND WHAT ABOUT ME, HUH! You planning on fixing me too?”_ **

**_The hand around my throat sent none-too-gentle shocks throughout my body, making my legs twitch in every direction and my breath to come in sharper and shorter spurts. This was it._ **

**_This man…thing was going to kill me._ **

**_“I-I’m sorry… I c-can’t, please,” I rasped._ **

**_Electro gritted his teeth before a sad but terrifying grin broke out on his face._ **

**_“Unfortunately for you, that was the wrong answer.”_ **

**_It was only moments later that I felt the most excruciating pain I’d ever experienced._ **

***************

“I was attacked that night and I almost died. After that, I swore that I would never feel that helpless and weak again,” I shook away the memory and rubbed my upper arms through my cardigan. “So, I asked Danny to train me. And the rest is history, I guess.”

Miss Bitch came back with our drinks and food then, having enough sense to make off without another rude ass glare.

James, on the other hand, was giving me that look again only this time, he seemed a bit stupefied by my answer. His stare persisted for a few more moments before he dug into his burger with nothing more than a huff. Whatever that means.

I took a sip of my iced tea before pushing the croutons around in my salad.

“I’m thinking that I deserve a question in return for your prying.”

James glanced up at me before putting his burger down.

“I guess you’re right. I’m nothing if not fair.”

Now, I had to do this the right way, or he wouldn’t end up answering the question that I wanted. I was going to have to pull some serious reverse psychology shit right now.

“So how’d you get to be friends with Captain America? Darcy mentioned it in passing while we talking the other day…”

James narrowed his at me for a moment, looking dumbfounded.

A through, straightforward question is met with surprise and uneasiness. Conclusion confirmed.

I was _so_ right. Now it was time to make him squirm.

“I was just wondering how that happened since you don’t really work at the tower after all. It must be one interesting story,” I took a bit of my salad and smiled.

James swallowed whatever food was in his mouth before looking down fleetingly.

“Yeah, you could say that.”

_‘Cuz it’s a bittersweet symphony, this life…_

Every fucking time.

“I’m sorry,” I muttered to James before pulling my phone from my pocket.

When I answered, there was a distinct whooshing sound in the background of the other line. Of course it was Peter. I guess he was Spider Man-ing then.

“ _Why didn’t you tell me?”_ he growled.

A very angry Peter, apparently.

“Tell you what?” I snapped.

“ _About Harry!_ ”

Oh, fuck. Please don’t be talking about what I think you’re talking about.

“ _He’s joining Stark Industries to over see the projects from Oscorp! How could you not tell me that, Jac?_ ”

My fork clattered back into my salad bowl as I dropped it.

“Wait, what?” I sputtered.

There was a soft thump before the whooshing came to an end. He must have stopped and landed on something after my exclamation. My eyes flew up to James’ briefly and it seemed that he had recovered from my question but was ready to ask me a few about this phone call.

Without speaking, I put my free hand up in a ‘one-minute’ gesture before getting up and walking out the front of the diner.

“ _Where the hell did you hear that from?”_ I asked him, standing on the stoop outside of the door.

“ _The news. They’re covering the press conference going on at Stark Tower right now.”_ He paused, deflating. “ _You really didn’t know?”_

I threw up my hand in frustration. “Of course I didn’t know, Peter! I work in the science division, not the _fucking business division_! Don’t you think I would tell you if I did? I mean, really.”

I didn’t want to be around Harry anymore than Peter did. It was bad enough he was out of Ravencroft, the last thing I needed was him lurking around where I worked.

Oh, god. Harry. At Stark Tower. With me.

I think I was going to have a panic attack.

“ _I’m sorry I blew up on you. I just…kinda freaked out.”_

My heart started beating faster than normal and I put my hand to my chest. This can’t be healthy.

“Like I’m doing right now? Yeah, thanks.”

“ _Do you want me to come and get you?”_ he asked, worried.

I immediately rolled my eyes. “Yes, please come rescue me with your great swinging skills, Tarzan.”

“ _All right, all right, no need to get testy, Dr. Hyde.”_

“Yeah, whatever, I’ll talk to you when I get home. Just…” I rubbed the indent I was making in my forehead with the scowl on my face. “Pray for me.”

“ _Okay, be careful.”_

My foot stepped off of the stoop as I hung up and not a moment later, I collided with someone on the sidewalk. My phone flew in one direction and an object in the hand of the person I bumped into went in another.

“I’m so sorry!”

“No, it’s perfectly fine,” a smooth, distinctly male voice replied.

I scrambled to pick up the man’s belongings when I realized that it was a stick- a walking stick.

I hit a fucking _blind_ person.

“Oh my god, are you alright?” I panicked, finally looking up. “Matt?”

 

* * *

  

**Bucky POV**

Hyde knew.

She actually figured me out.

I had to hand it to her, I was impressed. The dig about Steve was the last thing I was expecting her to ask me. The only people who knew my real identity were The Avengers, Coulson, and Darcy. The files Natasha leaked on the Internet were redacted soon after the Hydra takeover, so nothing was pinned to me. SHIELD dealt with ironing out the rough details of my ‘Winter Soldier’ days with the CIA and FBI early on and I was exempt from all charges, domestic and foreign. It didn’t happen immediately but when it did, I was glad for it- one less thing for me to worry about.

Right now, the only thing I _was_ worrying about was Jac’s mental state.

Her free arm was flailing wildly during her call as I watched her through the front window of the diner. I didn’t even have the benefit of reading her lips to find out what was going on because her back was facing me. It was only until she stepped off the stoop in front of the entrance and fell out of my sight that I kick my ass into gear. I threw a few bills onto the table and made way out to find Jac and a man with red, rounded glasses speaking to each other off to the side of the walkway.

“Jacqueline Hyde, right?” the man said, gesturing toward her.

She was visibly flustered. “Uh, yeah! How’d you know?”

I’d like to know that, too.

“Well, I can’t exactly be good with faces so, I’ve become pretty good with voices instead.”

Hyde laughed, handing him his walking stick. How many disabled people does this woman know?

“Everything all right?” I asked, finally speaking up.

Jac looked my way and nodded quickly.

“Yeah, I just wasn’t watching where I was going. James, this is Matt Murdock. He’s one of the best defense attorneys in the city.”

He grinned and gripped his stick in both hands. “Not even close, but if you need one, you know where to find me.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Jac replied with that heartbreaking smile of hers. Too bad he couldn’t see it. “Sorry about that again.”

He waved her off. “Don’t worry about, no harm done. It’s not me you should be worrying about anyway. Some creep in a black suit is running around, wreaking havoc. Hell’s Kitchen isn’t the safest place anymore.”

The influx of heroes in the city came by no surprise from my perspective. The Avengers started something big, a chain reaction of hope that didn’t look like it was going away anytime soon.

I folded my arms over my chest and scoffed. “Was it ever?”

The blind man pursed his lips and adjusted his glasses. “Touché.”

“I’ll see you around, Matt,” Jac said finally with a wave.

He nodded toward her. “I’ll hear you around, Jacqueline.”

Punny. Great.

With that, the man was back on his way.

I left the stoop of the diner and got back onto the asphalt of the sidewalk. “We should get back to the tower if you don’t wanna be late.”

Jac nodded before something seemed to click in her brain.

“The food-”

“I got it, sweetheart. Don’t worry about it.”

She stared at me for a moment before looking down and away. The name was growing on her. Maybe I did still have that old Buchanan charm after all.

I smirked in triumph as we made our way back to the subway station.

* * *

 

Jac’s whole demeanor changed once we arrived back at the tower and I knew it had something to do with that phone call she got earlier. The phone call she still hadn’t told me about.

She was futzing around the lab with Banner, but I could tell she wasn’t actually getting any real work done. Her movements were too erratic, she’d start something in one place, and without finishing it, move onto something else. Whatever she was thinking about was really getting to her.

I was standing outside the lab, looking in when I heard the elevator ring down the hallway, signaling that someone had just gotten off.

“Where’s the newbie?” Stark yelled from the same direction.

He made his way down and around into the Natural Sciences wing and strutted down toward me with a stern look of determination on his face. Someone must have pissed him off.

“So you’re still here, I see,” Stark said, stopping in front of me with his arms crossed.

“Yes.”

“ _Why_?”

“I’m working.”

“Doing what?”

I threw him a look of annoyance before looking back into the lab. “I’m on orders from Coulson, that’s all you need to know.”

“Oh, so your SHIELDs mindless drone now.”

My teeth gritted involuntarily and I heard my metal arm clench in preparation for a fight. Mentally, I patted myself on the back for being able to put up with him for so long. Seems like I had to take Stark’s shit one day at a time.

I looked at him again and noticed he had swapped his normal attire of a t-shirt and jeans for a two-piece grey suit.

“What’s with the clothes?”

He sighed deeply and dramatically. “Pepper had a press conference I was obligated to go to- a press conference which I _wholeheartedly_ disagreed with by the way. I’m starting to rethink my idea about giving her the company… Kinda why I’m here to talk to the newbie.”

Stark threw me a strange look before snapping his fingers.

“That’s why you’re here, right? To keep an eye on her?”

I groaned dropped my arms from across my chest. Coulson wasn’t exactly clear with whether or not I was supposed to tell people about my assignment so I made the decision myself. With Stark, it was always better to say less than more.

“Was I right? Is she possibly a Hydra baddie?”

Silence.

“Is she at least some kind of baddie? Or a spy?”

“No, Stark,” I said, all but growling.

“Then what’s the _deal_ with her? For gods sake! She is seriously becoming the single most frustrating individual I have encountered since Romanov. And that’s saying something.”

I highly doubted that. I _would_ know.

“Well, I’m sure if you took the time to get to know her like everyone else in this division had, you wouldn’t be saying that.”

“…Do you have a thing for her?”

He did not just ask me that. No, this was Stark. Of course he asked me that.

“ _What?”_

“A thing- for newbie. Do you like-like her? Is she down to clown? Does she wanna take a ride on your disco-”

Don’t throw him through a wall, _don’t throw him through a wall_ …

“Stark, I swear to god, if you don’t shut your damn mouth, I’m stuffing my fist in it.”

He put his hands up in mock surrender. “Fine, fine. I came here to talk to newbie anyway.”

“Her name is Jacqueline.”

You fucking prick.

Stark stared at me for a moment before laughing and making his way into the lab. I followed behind him grudgingly and braced myself for whatever onslaught I was about to witness.

Both Jac and Bruce stopped whatever they were doing when they saw Tony.

“Hey Bruce,” he said brightly before his expression dropped when he looked toward Jac.

“Tony…” Bruce offered.

“I have a few quick questions for _Jacqueline_ here,” Stark said while taking liberties and sitting down on one of the stools, throwing his feet up onto the lab table and over the papers that were scattered there.

Jac looked like she didn’t know what to do. “Um- Okay, well, what’s-”

“I want you to tell me everything you know about Harry Osborn.”

All traces of the brightness that I had come to associate with Jac fell away instantly.

She paled. Yeah, I know that sounds crazy, but it happened. I couldn’t tell whether she was going to be sick or run for the hills. Probably both.

Jac was absolutely terrified. And suddenly I was furious- boiling mad, furious. And the only thought in my mind was finding out who the man was that made her feel like this.

Who the fuck was Harry Osborn?

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW


	10. The Reason, The Cause, The Cure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all :)
> 
> Sorry for the wait guys. I’ve been trying to update once a week but it didn’t really work out this time. The first part took me longer to do than I anticipated it would. It’s funny though because, the second part took less time but it’s like three times longer. I guess it just works out that way sometimes. Oh well! Hope you like it!
> 
> HAPPY READING!!!!!!

**Chapter 9: The Reason, The Cause, The Cure**

**Bucky POV**

 

 

**_“I want you to tell me everything you know about Harry Osborn.”_ **

**_All traces of the brightness that I had come to associate with Jac fell away instantly._ **

**_She paled. Yeah, I know that sounds crazy, but it happened. I couldn’t tell whether she was going to be sick or run for the hills. Probably both._ **

**_Jac was absolutely terrified. And suddenly I was furious- boiling mad, furious. And the only thought in my mind was finding out who the man was that made her feel like this._ **

**_Who the fuck was Harry Osborn?_ **

****

“I’m just going to step outside while you-” Bruce murmured, looking supremely uncomfortable by the situation he was thrust in the middle of.

Tony waved the man off. “No, stay! This story’s gonna be good, I can feel it.”

Jac caught my eyes pleadingly before the fell down and away. Whoever this tool was, she really did not want to talk about him. I wanted to know who the prick was but not at the cost of making her feel worse than she already did- it wasn’t worth it.

“Why do you want to know about him?” Jac said in a small, mousey voice.

Stark folded his hands in his lap. “Well, number one, because you still haven’t explained to me your backstory with him and sue me, I’m curious. Number two, Pepper just made him overseer of the projects stemming from Oscorp’s research in a sign of ‘good faith’ now that he’s out of the looney bin. And number three, because of the look on your face right now.”

Jac was actively avoiding making eye contact with anyone now. Bruce was trying his best to stay out the situation by sitting in the utmost corner of the room, but there was a vein jumping in his forehead.  What made Stark think that him, being in the room for this was a good idea, was beyond me.

“You might want to get over that, ‘being an open book’ thing you’ve got going on. It doesn’t bode well in the world of superheroes and spies,” Stark said finally.

Jac sighed shakily in reply. “We were friends when we were young. His father sent him to boarding school when he was 13. When he came back, I hadn’t seen him in almost ten-”

Stark put his hand up, effectively cutting her off. “Those are the cookie cutter details, Hyde. I already know the basics, give me the juice. How’d he end up in Ravencroft? The files aren’t public or electronic based so I couldn’t find them without actually _going_ there. That means someone’s trying to hide what really happened.”

“And you think I’m one of those people?” she looked struck again.

“I think that you’re _the_ person. But none of that really matters now. I just want to know what it is you’re hiding.”

All right, I’ve had about enough of this.

I stepped closer to the suited man with both fists clenched at my sides.

“Stark, lay off,” I said in the fiercest voice I could manage.

He looked at me in surprise briefly before shaking his head. “Nope, not gonna happen.”

His eyes were turned back on Jac and she looked like a leaf quaking in the wind. I was ready to protest more when Stark spoke up again.

“ _You,_ little missy, are going to have to fess up, because Osborn’s joining this company whether I like it or not and I will go to the ends of the earth to pick up every little speck of dirt and skeleton in the closet to see that he’s fit to do so. We’ve already had one evil take over, and I’ll be damned if I let another one happen. So tell me what you know.”

Tears had welled in Jac’s eyes before overflowing rapidly and running down her brown cheeks as she turned away from Stark’s onslaught, resigned to her fate.

“Harry was dying, just like his father before him. The Skrull disease, they called it. The stress he was under seemed to accelerate the effects and he was deteriorating before my eyes.”

Jac bit her lip and took a shaky breath before she continued.

“A long time ago, Norman Osborn and his team were working on a serum derived from spider venom that would have revolutionized the way we think about healing and the human body. But the serum was deactivated when it reached testing stages and it was never seen again.”

“But then the Spider guy shows up,” Stark intoned.

At this point, I was mentally collecting the names of people involved in Jac’s life that I didn’t know. So far, Harry Osborn, Matt Murdock, Danny Rand, and Spider-Man were among the quickly growing list.

“Yeah,” she paused again. “Harry tried to get in contact with him, to get a sample of his blood to see if it could help, if it could save his life. And when he did, Spider-Man refused. He said he didn’t want Harry’s death on his conscience if it made things worse rather than better. So…I took matters into my own hands. I talked to Spider-Man myself and got a blood sample that wasn’t exactly voluntary. I used the blood to recreate the serum and tried to get it to Harry but…he was gone before I could. I was attacked within an inch of my life during the blackout and spent the better part of a week in NY Presbyterian. The next time I saw him was after I was released, in Ravencroft. That’s all I know…”

Stark hummed before dropping his feet from the lab table and leaning in to Jac just a few paces away. He looked a little reproachful before it all fell away and he was back to prying.

“I’m assuming the only detail you left out was the fact that you were _in love_ with him. But, that’s all right.”

He got up from the stool quickly and fixed his jacket with a triumphant grin. He was so fucking proud of himself and it made me want to kill him even more.

“And I don’t blame you. He is awfully pretty.”

Without another word, Stark was gone- out the door and back down the hall to cause some other unsuspecting person misery.

I watched after him for a moment with a sneer before making it to Jac’s side in two strides. She looked as if she were about to fall over so I caught her upper arms in my grip.

“Are you okay?” I asked as softly as possible.

As disarming as it was seeing her like this, the only thing in my mind was how to make it better, but dreadful feeling twisted in my gut when I realized that I didn’t know how. I could protect her from almost anything, physically. But I couldn’t fight away her emotions for her, as much as I may have wanted to.

She lifted her hands to her face to wipe her tear stained cheeks and my own hand twitched up to do it for her before I stopped myself. I had no damn business wondering about how soft her skin was when she was like this. Correction, I had no damn business wondering how soft her skin felt _period_.

“I’m fine…” she murmured, her eyes still down.

There were many things I knew Jac was in that moment and none of them included the word ‘fine’. She was an open book; the one and only thing Stark was right about in his observation about her disposition.

“You don’t have to be strong all the time, you know.”

A weary and resigned expression erupted on her face then and made her look older than she was as her warm brown eyes rose to mine again.

She shook her head. “Yes, I do.”

Jac disentangled herself from me and made her way across the lab where her bomber jacket was hung on a silver hook attached to the far right wall. Her movements were no longer hesitant and unsure. She was moving with a purpose and it worried me that I didn’t know what it was.

“Would you hate me if I left early Bruce?” she asked softly, pulling the jacket over her shoulders

“Not at all. I’ll clean up the place, you head home,” he said immediately, looking sympathetic.

Going home seemed to be exactly what Jac needed. I doubted she would be able to get any real work done after what had just happened if she stayed.

“I’ll take you home.”

I started toward her before she put a hand out, stopping me.

“No. I’d like to be by myself for a while, if that’s all right.”

Her words definitely should not have bothered me as much as it did.

“Yeah, sure,” I said, nodding anyway.

If Stark ever did that to her again, I would beat him to a bloody pulp. I didn’t care how rich he was.

* * *

 

“So, why are we watching this again?”

“Well, you’ve never seen it before, you’re severely lacking on your knowledge of Brad Pitt movies, and the story is older than you and Steve so, it shouldn’t be too hard for you to understand.”

As Sam got busy setting the movie up, I glared at him. Sometimes he acted like Steve and I were from a different planet rather than a different time period. Granted, with the situations that we were thrust into back then, we might as well have been.

Steve came back into the living room with a large bowl of popcorn and his phone in his phone gripped in his other hand. Apollo was curled up on his bed behind the couch, snoring softly. I’d fed the Husky-Shepard Mix dinner and taken him for a long walk around the park about an hour ago, so it was no wonder as to why he was exhausted.

“The pizza should be here in 30 minutes,” he said, laying both items down onto the coffee table in front of the couch before sitting down, leaving a spot for our mechanical winged friend.

Sam rubbed his hands together as he got up from the floor in front of the tv and the other contraptions below it.

“Good, I’m about ready to eat a cow.”

I shook my head.

“I still can’t believe you eat fruit on your pizza. Pineapple, really? It’s a freaking disgrace.”

Steve pursed his lips before chuckling. “At least there’s meat on it.”

“Instead of getting a first class seat on the judgy train,” Sam took the seat Steve left him, “how ‘bout you try it for yourself when it gets here?”

“Yeah, that won’t be happening. Ever,” I scoffed.

Sam seemed to give up on trying to convince me and started the movie.

“What’s this called again?” Steve asked just as the opening scene began.

“Troy. Now shut the hell up,” Sam grumbled, immediately putting the volume up.

About 15 minutes in, Steve seemed to really be into it. Sam looked pleased with himself that he had at least caught his attention but I just couldn’t focus on anything that was going on. I was staring at the screen and watching battles and epic declarations of love happen without really seeing them.

Jac was on my mind, and I couldn’t get her out of it. Her reaction in the lab today wasn’t something that I thought I would never see with her. Seeing her cry was like a child seeing their parent shed a tear for the first time. You envision someone with a strong and fierce sense of character, almost as if nothing can touch them, that they’re invincible in a way. But then all of your preconceived notions are stripped away in a second and you see them for who they really are- just human.

I had half a mind to go check on her but I knew it wouldn’t help. If anything, it would make matters worse. She needed to sort this through on her own, and I had to let her. If the situation were reversed, that would be what I would want, as well.

And, just like that the pizza had arrived and the movie was over.

“Buck, you alright?” Steve asked me suddenly, pulling me from my reverie.

“Yeah,” I muttered, shaking my head. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

I wish I could say the same for Jac…

Steve raised an eyebrow at me. “You sure? Cuz you haven’t eaten anything and I know for a fact that Joe’s is the best pizza in Flatbush.”

“It’s probably a girl,” Sam added nonchalantly while stuffing his face.

If looks could kill, Sam would have been six feet under by now from the glare I was throwing his way.

“A girl?”

Wow, Steve, sound a bit more shocked, why don’t you. Punk.

“Not like that,” I declared immediately.

“Than what’s it like?” he asked.

“Coulson offered me a job as a detail to someone he needs protected. In return, I get to start going out for field missions.”

“Is that what you’ve been doing these past few weeks? I thought you just picked up a hobby…”

Sam snickered beneath his breath. “Yeah, it’s called ‘stalking hot scientist girls’.”

He lowered his voice and put a hand to his chest.

“ _Jacqueline Hyde_ ,” murmured lowly.

I almost knocked the plate out of his hand and threw myself at him.

“Shut the fuck up. I’m not stalking her,” I insisted.

“But you do like her.”

I growled, fuming. “ _Of course_ not. What are you, in third grade?”

Sam was howling with laughter a moment before Steve joined in, only in a slightly less obnoxious way.

“ _What_?”

“You’re making the face,” Sam whined, still laughing.

This was getting ridiculous.

“ _What_ face?”

Steve sighed, calming himself down. “The face when you attempt to look intimidating because you’re trying to convince someone of something that’s obviously not true.”

There was no point in even arguing with them at this point. It’s not like them would listen to a word I said anyway. I got up from my seat on the couch and saw that Apollo was looking around drowsily. Sam and Steve probably woke him up with their stupid fucking hysterics.

“We’re not talking about this anymore. She’s my job, and I don’t like her like that.”

Steve attempted to look placated for the moment but I knew he was going to be heckling me about it later.

“Whatever you say, Buck.”

Sam on the other hand, wanted to drag this out for as long as possible.

“Maybe I’ll swing by with Steve tomorrow and introduce myself,” he queried, continuing to eat.

My friends were fucking idiots.

* * *

 

**Jac POV**

 

 

I should have hated Tony Stark after today, but I didn’t. His interrogations brought something out in me that I hadn’t faced, or refused to face in the past. The simple facts and events that had led up to today were as follows: I didn’t get the cure to Harry, Harry let Electro out of his prison, Electro killed people, Harry stole the glider from Oscorp and then killed Gwen.

Even before Harry had come to Peter about Spider-Man being the solution to his illness, I knew what I had to do to create the cure but I hesitated. I hesitated because I didn’t feel right going behind Peter’s back. In the end, I got his blood in his kitchen while we were helping Aunt May with dinner. The knife ‘slipped’ and I cut Peter’s forearm. I kept the towel he used to stop the bleeding and used the sample to remove Peter’s DNA from the serum so it would be capable of working on anyone. I possessed the very thing that could change people’s lives for the better and I had no idea what to do with it.

And now Harry was back and I didn’t know what to make of it. He would be working at Stark Industries, and the only reason I could come up with as to why that was, is because of the serum. Harry still didn’t know that I had activated venom and neither did Peter. The weight of the secret had come crashing down onto me after Stark had asked me about Harry. Despite this, I knew that I had to tell someone or it would eat me alive.

Peter put a couple paper plates on the kitchen table before laying out the cartons and containers of Chinese food he had gotten before coming home.

“What are you going to do?” he asked me.

I served myself a bit of steamed chicken and broccoli before shrugging with a scoff.

“I really have no idea Peter. That is if there’s _anything_ I can do about it.”

He passed me a pair of chopsticks before shaking his head and taking a seat across from me.

“I don’t want him anywhere near you, Jac.”

Yeah, neither did I, but that wasn’t exactly my call. Knowing Stark, he’d probably put Harry and I in the same room first chance he got, just to see my reaction. The man knew how to make me squirm and I fucking hated it.

My fingers pulled the chopsticks apart with more force than necessary before I dug into my food, remembering I’d barely touched my salad at lunch with James.

I sighed around a piece of broccoli before swallowing. “Well, what do you want me to do, Peter? Quit?”

“Of course not!” he disagreed. “I just want you to be careful.”

Peter took a few more bites of his General Tso’s before the silence came. Ugh, I knew what that meant. Questions that I was not in the mood to answer were ahead.

“Who’s that guy you were with this afternoon?”

Wait, what? How the _fuck_ -

“You saw him?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

“Yeah. I was flying around, wanted to check in on you,” he said nonchalantly. “Dude with the long hair, metal hand, James Dean vibe about him?”

Jeeze, Peter. I already had one person stalking me, last thing I needed was another one.

“I didn’t really think you’d go for the brooding type…”

My eyes almost rolled into the back of my head and got stuck there at his tone.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” I practically groaned.

“Then what’s his deal?” he asked, eyeing me suspiciously.

Might as well bite the bullet and tell him sooner rather than later. Informing him about James could even work in my favor. Getting Peter to lay off the stalker-like tendencies for a while, red and blue suit or not, would be greatly appreciated. I swear, sometimes he makes me feel like a 12 year old who needs help with crossing the street and tying their shoes.

“Remember the guy from SHIELD that came into Stark Industries the day I fell?” I sighed, pushing my food around.

He tilted his head slightly. “What about him?”

Even deeper sigh…

“Well, he kind of…hired a bodyguard for me.”

Peter stared at me blankly for a moment before recognition flicker in his features.

“A bodyguard. Are you serious?”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at him again before nodding a few times.

And then he turned into some kind of game show person hosting 20 questions in 30 seconds.

“Why would he do that? You’re not even apart of SHIELD. Who is this guy? Is he even qualified to be doing that? How-”

I put one hand up in front of me and slapped him on the shoulder. Jesus Christ, he’s worse than Darcy.

“Peter! One question at a time, motor mouth.”

It was Peter’s turn to roll his eyes at me.

“What’s his name at least?”

Thank god he picked an easy question to start out with. Explaining that James was actually a WWII survivor and best friends with Captain America would definitely complicate an already complicated situation.

This is what I get for getting involved with superheroes.

“James. His name is James,” I said finally.

When I looked up Peter was had his thick eyebrows raised and his free hand was whirling in a ‘go-on’ type of motion. I swear on my Grandpa Francis’ grave, I almost slapped him.

“ _Just James_. I don’t need you cyber stalking the guy on the Internet.”

The hand Peter was using to motion with dropped and he went back to work on his food with a scoff.

“I’m offended that you would think so low of me. If I was going to stalk him, I’d just do it the old fashioned way.”

Well, that’s comforting.

“Aw, how sweet. The annoying big brother I never wanted.”

I took a sip from my glass of coke while I watched Peter’s jaw drop in mock offense.

“Come on! You love me,” he grinned, kicking me lightly underneath the table. And he treats me like I’m the 12 years old.

I finished my food and got up to toss my plate in the garbage under the sink when another question from Peter caught my attention.

“But why would the Director of SHIELD give _you_ a bodyguard?”

My body stilled for a millisecond before I shrugged noncommittally and tossed the plate out. My hands rubbed together to brush the remaining crumbs from my fingers before I checked my watch. I had a little over an hour to get to my great uncle Percy’s gym for my training session with Danny.

If I had known before hand which direction Peter and I’s discussion would take that night, I never would have answered his question.

“I was trying to figure that out myself. But I have a few theories…” I offered, turning back to him while leaning against the counter.

He looked worried for a moment. “Do you think it has to do with Spider-Man?”

Peter had just emerged back into the spotlight as the famous web slinger after two years and the public, despite a few radical articles from none other than the Daily Bugle, had welcomed him back with no less than pomp and circumstance. In response, Peter felt like he’d made the right decision in coming back, and therefore, so did I. He was happier and getting back to that lovely, carefree person I’d met a lifetime ago. The last thing he needed now was SHIELD on his trail.

I shook my head. “No, he would have brought me into SHIELD headquarters to question me if he thought I knew who you were.”

Peter pursed his lips, thinking. “He did call me that day…”

“He also called my father.”

“How did he handle the whole ordeal by the way? From his attitude when we were moving in, he still seemed pissed.”

Leon Triplett was infamously known to hold a grudge for a very long time-it was in the blood, so he claims. But I was his baby girl, and he’d never stayed mad at me longer than a week. His malice had burned out in half the time in this case.

“Yeah, but Coulson filled him in on everything. He knows how they operate so he’s not too worried,” I assured him.

Peter gave me a strange look then, like I’d spoken in a different language.

“How would he know that?”

Oh, fuck. I fucked up. SHIT.

My eyes widened at my own mistake but I bit the bullet like I said I would. “Um…my, uh… My father used to work for SHIELD-years ago. Before he gained custody of me from my mother.”

“WHAT?” he shouted immediately, abandoning his chopsticks in the container he was eating from.

My god, he was so dramatic sometimes. Not that it wasn’t justified right now, but he had nothing to worry about… I was 95% sure, that is.

“Calm _down_ , Peter. He doesn’t do that anymore. He’s just a plain old college professor now, you know that. He doesn’t know about you and your questionable pastimes.”

“How do you know that? Are you trained in telling if someone is lying or not by their heartbeat and other weird spy related cues? I don’t think so, but I bet your father is!”

I rolled my eyes and removed myself from the counter to stop at Peter’s side. Both of my hands came down to grip the tops of his shoulders as he sat at the table.

“Peter, do you really think my father would let me be friends with you, let alone, _move in_ with you if he thought you were a superhero?”

Hell, my father was probably going to kill Coulson for putting someone with such a complicated past as _James_ anywhere near me. He already didn’t like the idea of me working at Stark Tower, but he knew it was a great opportunity for me. And in his opinion, anything was better than SHIELD, not that I agreed with him in the least. Most certainly, there were worse things out there.

“And to be completely honest, your not very good at hiding you secret anyway,” I said grinning.

“What are you talking about? I am perfectly perfect at hiding my secret,” he gasped sounding offended again.

My body straightened up and I did my best to imitate his confused, bullshitting voice.

“ _I was cleaning the chimney_?”

Peter glared at me for a moment before breaking character and laughing out loud.

“Okay, that was poorly executed, but May caught me by surprise! I had to improvise.”

I laughed with him before moving from behind him to sit back down at the table with my knees pulled up to my chest.

“Yeah, next time improvise a lie that makes sense.”

Peter got busy with cleaning the table and putting the remaining food away.

“So, what are your other theories?”

I shifted in my seat briefly, trying to find the right words. “Well, SHIELD was looking into Harry before he even got out of Ravencroft. Maybe they know about the night of the black out. Maybe because of my relationship with him…they want to keep me at arms length, for informational purposes.”

Beside my intellect, that was the only thing I could imagine they would need or could use from me.

“Relationship? I knew Harry just as well as you did and no ones following me around like I’m the leader of the free world.”

I swallowed thickly as he shut the fridge and turned back to me with his arms folded. I realized fairly quickly that there was no way around telling Peter the truth at this point, the truth about everything- even things I didn’t want to remember myself.

“Peter…”

He narrowed his eyes at me at my sudden change in demeanor before he sat back down across from me at the table.

“Why do you have that look on your face?”

I bit my lip and finally decided to look him in the eyes. He deserved that much.

Peter shut his eyes and sighed hard. “I’m not gonna like what you have to tell me am I?”

I don’t like having to _tell_ you what I have to say…

“I had feelings for Harry when we were kids,” I muttered, starting. “He was always around you and _we_ were always together and one day it just happened. I thought I was over it, over him, but when he came back after all those years, everything kind of just caught up with me.”

Peter waited a moment before shrugging slowly with an understanding smile adorning his features. He grabbed my hand from across the table and squeezed it gently. It made me hate myself even more.

“So you had a crush on Harry. A lot of girls did. It’s nothing to be ashamed of Jac. We can’t really help who we develop feelings for.”

But you _can_ help who you lose your virginity to.

“There’s more to it than that…” I said shakily, pulling my hand out from under his. “When I found out he was sick, I tried to help him, to do anything I could. But there was something missing and I didn’t know what it was until later. After you visited him as Spider-Man, he was upset and angry and scared. He called me over to his place that night. And we…we-”

Peter was out of his seat by then, pulling my body up and into his arms. Tears were welling in my eyes and I willed them away aggressively. I was _so fucking sick_ of crying.

Peter’s hands rubbed my back slowly with my face buried in his neck. “Jac, stop. You don’t have to explain yourself to me. I get it. If anyone gets it, it’s me. Sometimes we make decisions in a moment because of how we feel _in_ the moment and sometimes it turns out being the wrong choice. But you can’t punish yourself for it. I learned that the hard way. I’m just glad he didn’t take advantage of anything else.”

I pulled away from him slightly so that I could look him in the eyes. My red-rimmed ones reflected in his amber ones and I almost lost the fight I was raging against myself to keep my emotions in check. Telling him the _whole_ truth was the only option.

“There _is_ something else… Harry’s assistant, Felicia, she got her hands on a sample of the venom at Oscorp and gave it to me, per Harry’s orders. When you told me about your father’s lab and the reason it wouldn’t work…I took a sample of your blood and reactivated the serum.”

Peter pulled us further apart slowly and the look on his face was terrifying, like he didn’t recognize me at all. My breath caught immediately and my heart squeezed painfully in my chest.

“You…what?” he whispered.

This was my only chance to fix what I’d done. I had to make him understand why.

My hands gripped his shoulders desperately. “I know, I know! It’s terrible and underhanded and deceitful, but I had to do _something_. You said you could never forgive yourself if something happened to Harry because of you, but he was dying anyway! And I couldn’t just sit by and watch it happen.”

My taut body deflated for a moment and I pushed all of the air out of my lungs shakily before continuing.

“I thought I loved him and maybe I did but…that’s no excuse to have kept it from you for so long and I’m so sorry.”

My hands fell from his forearms as he stepped away from me. Peter just stood there and I let him be. His jaw clenched and his hands formed two tight fists, like he wanted to hit something _hard_.

I knew this wasn’t going to be easy.

“Do you still have it?” he said in a scarily calm voice after a few moments.

My arms wrapped around myself as I gave him the space I knew he needed from me. It was moments like this with Peter that were the worst, when I couldn’t detect his next move or step. I knew him so well but sometimes he became this unpredictable force that I could not anticipate.

“Yes. Why?” I asked watching him carefully.

“You need to destroy it.”

My eyes shot back up to his in a second as I question whether I’d heard him right, but I knew I had.

“ _What_?”

Peter moved into the living room with a huff and paced in the open space between the seating area and the television. His expression hardened and I knew he meant business. Whether or not I would listen to what he said was another story.

I followed him into the next room and watched him in disbelief through the door way between the rooms. He stopped and glared at me with steely eyes and pursed lips.

“Jac, that serum can be used against you. It puts you in danger every second that it’s in your possession. Did you ever think that maybe that’s the reason Harry came back? And don’t tell me you thought he came back for you…”

The crossed arms around my chest loosened then and my face fell at his proposal. This entire time, was I truly displacing my feelings for Harry onto the person I believed him to be now?

No! He was different. On that roof, he could have killed me but he didn’t. He didn’t want me to jump. He was different, he _had_ to be…

“Jac, you can’t be that stupid!” Peter shouted in exasperation and my body jumped.

“What if it’s true, Peter? What if Harry is different? What if he has changed?” I asked in a tone higher than normal. Peter had to know I wasn’t crazy, that I did what I did for a reason.

He threw his arms out at his sides. “That doesn’t change what he did!”

“I’m not saying it does! All I’m saying is, that maybe he deserves a second chance at life, too. Just like us.”

Peter stood there and his entire body froze for a moment before he slowly collected himself. A hand came up to rub down his face before he turned away from me and crossed his arms again.

“Seems like there’s a lot you haven’t been telling me,” he murmured with his anger bubbling just below the surface.

Yes, I kept secrets from him, but I did it to protect him. Why couldn’t he see that?

I sighed softly. “I didn’t want to worry you and it was my burden to bear.”

Peter laughed for a bit and I narrowed my eyes at his response.

“What, like the your father being apart of SHIELD was?”

So, he wanted to go the backhanded comment route then.

I clenched my jaw and lifted myself from my spot against the wall.

“Peter, I don’t want to fight about this,” I groaned, starting down the hallway toward my room to get ready for the gym.

“Oh, we’re way past fighting, Jac. Now, I’m just going to tell you what to do and you’re going to do it.”

My feet stuttered to a halt before I glared at him over my shoulder.

“ _Excuse_ me?”

He turned on his heel to me before taking a few steps my way, slowly and calculatingly.

“ _You heard me_. Harry Osborn is never going to see, hear, or know about that serum, much less, be given it. It doesn’t leave this apartment. Ever.”

I almost started laughing in earnest. Not because I was discouraging the seriousness of our conversation but because he actually thought I would listen to him when he was speaking to me like that.

“Peter, I understand that you’re upset that I didn’t tell you-”

“Upset is an understatement,” he said, interrupting me.

I put my hand out and stopped him.

“ _That being said_ \- I am my own person and no one control my actions but me. I’m not saying that I’m giving the serum to Harry-”

“But you’re thinking about it,” he growled out.

I sighed in frustration and dropped my hands and started toward him imploringly before we met in the middle.

“It could save his life, Peter. It could fix everything!”

Peter’s hands came out to grip my fore arms where we stood and my voice cut out in shock.

“ _NO IT CAN’T!_ ” he yelled, shaking me slightly. “IT CAN’T, JAC, BECAUSE GWEN IS STILL DEAD!”

Both our chests were heaving against each other, Peter’s in anger and mine in fear. He’d never acted this way around me and I honestly had no idea what he was going to do.

Peter’s tight grip on my forearms loosened before dropping completely as he stared down at them, remembering himself.

I stood paralyzed and watched him as he spoke.

He took a few steps away from me and clenched his shaking hands. “Gwen’s not coming back no matter whom or how many people you give that serum to. If you think that is going to fix _anything_ , than you really aren’t as smart as I thought you were.”

In a flash, he made his way past me and into his room. I vaguely heard the shuffling of drawers before he reemerged with a loaded duffle bag and his jacket around his shoulders. Peter stopped in front of the door to the apartment and paused with his hand on the knob.

“Harry is not the same person we knew. I faced that fact two years ago when I held Gwen’s dead body in my arms at the base of that clock tower. Before, maybe. Maybe there was something we could have done, and I’ll own that, but that time has passed. It changes nothing. And if you give him that serum…this? Us?”

No, no, no, he couldn’t do this to me. Not now…

“Peter-” I choked out, tears pricking my eyes again.

“I’m going to stay at Aunt May’s for a couple of days to cool down. You do what you have to do…”

The knob turned in his fist and Peter made his way out, shutting the door softly behind him.

The tears fell down my face as the locked clicked behind him and I didn’t even try to stop them. My weak knees collapsed and met the hard wood floor of the living room before I wrapped my arms around myself.

There were only two things that I knew at the moment. One, I wasn’t going to make it to the gym, and two… I may have just lost my best friend.


	11. Paging Dr. Barnes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *peeks out from behind curtain*
> 
> HEEEEEEEEYYY GUYS. What’s up? How’s it hanging? Are you doing okay? Because your lives are important to me too, and I don’t want you to feel that I’m neglecting you in any way. Like if I, in some crazy universe, didn’t update my story for a couple of months. It’s not like you guys would kill me, or anything… Heh heh…
> 
> Anyway…
> 
> HAPPY READING!!!!!!

**Chapter 10: Paging Dr. Barnes**

**Bucky POV**

“Explain to me why you’re doing this again.”

Sam grinned and threw his arm around my shoulders as we walked through the lobby of Stark Tower. True to his word, he’d come by today with the full intention of officially meeting Jac or in other words, to humiliate me.

Steve had tagged along too, less on Sam’s orders and more due to the fact of a boring lull in his assignments. He was flanking my left, shaking his head at the antics of our metal winged friend.

“Just think of it this way, Barnes. The sooner I actually meet the girl, the sooner you can ask me to be your best man at the wedding.”

I laughed despite myself. “Hate to break it to you, Wilson. But that spot is reserved for Steve.”

“Damn right it is,” he grinned.

“Well then, I guess I’ll just have to become best friends with Jac and become _her_ best man,” Sam scoffed.

Steve narrowed his eyes at him. “I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works.”

“We shall see, boys. The Wilson charm has never failed me before…”

Sam dropped his arm from me and a strange look passed across his features, as if he knew something I didn’t.

I didn’t like it one bit.

As per usual, I’d planned on seeing Jac off from her apartment this morning, but her words from the day before rang in my ears. I figured the whole “I need space” thing was still applicable and had faith that she could get to work on her own without any incognito observation courtesy of me- she’d proved that multiple times and verbally expressed it even more.

Jacqueline Hyde could do a lot of things on her own, including making her way to Stark Tower. I knew that. So why was there a nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach?

When Steve, Sam, and I made our way to Research and Development on the 32nd floor, a deep, booming voice rang through the halls. It was coming from Stark’s Lab and as we approached, I saw that there were a lot more people than there should have been. In the loft below Tony’s workstation, Avengers were mixing with scientists and even Pepper was present. A tall, red caped figure seemed to be the center of attention.

“I guess Thor’s back,” Steve shook his head with a grin.

Sam folded his arms and stared at the alien with a eyebrow raised.

“Oh, so that’s the Demigod… Makes sense he’s built like a freaking ox.”

I narrowed my eyes at the larger than life figure immediately in appraisal. He stood proudly, shoulders back and chest out, with silver armor covering his chest and arms. From what I remembered of my grade school days, we learned very little about the Norse gods. They were selfish, loud, flashy, and I hadn’t like them one bit. So far, this guy was fitting the bill.

Sam and I followed Steve down the left staircase and into the loft just as the aliens gaze shifted from the infinitely shorter Foster to Steve. He barreled forward and gave him a firm handshake in greeting, making Sam and I pause our descent.

The alien beamed. “Captain, it has been too long!”

I by passed their reunion and looked around the room, expecting to see a certain wavy haired brunette in a lab coat, but she wasn’t here. The watch on my wrist read 8:25 am. Jacqueline was almost a half an hour late. She didn’t do late. She was an early bird, like me, if anything. All possible explanations that I proposed in my head for her absence, ended badly.

If I wasn’t worried before, I definitely was now.

“My friends, it brings me great joy to be among you once again,” Thor bellowed once again.

Clint patted the alien on the back as he passed and dropped to the couch “Your back just in time, big guy. Stark’s throwing another one of his ‘This Party Doesn’t Need A Reason to Happen’ parties tomorrow.”

“Actually, it’s an unveiling of my new project. It deserves to happen in the presence of pomp and circumstance, cameras, and alcohol,” Tony grinned at the prospect. “And as flattered as I would be if it were true, I doubt the big guy traveled umpteen light years from Asgard to celebrate my awesomeness.”

That was the exact moment I tuned out of the conversation.

Unease was creeping at edges of my resolve and I was consumed with images of every possible scenario Jac could have gotten herself into- mugging, getting kidnapped, car accident, _train_ accident, getting caught in an impromptu super villain attack… Though the last one seemed highly unlikely, Jacqueline didn’t seem to have the best luck when it came to life threatening circumstances, and this was New York City. Last time, she’d ended up plummeting off a 20-story building and I doubted that she’d have the web slinger there to save her if anything else happened. It could be so much worse now.

I never should have left her alone.

Ignoring the reunion going on in front of me, I maneuvered around the bodies blocking my path and made my way across the room to the only person there who spent more time with Jacqueline than I did.

Bruce saw me coming and narrowed his eyes at my approach.

“Is everything-”

“Where’s Jacqueline?” I cut him off immediately, the inquiry coming out harsher than I had meant it to.

Bruce looked taken aback for a moment. “Pepper told me she called in sick this morning. Why?”

There was no way in hell she contracted an illness over night that was bad enough to keep her from work.

_Subject may be compromised, with potential suspects covering their trail._

My teeth ground together for a moment. “Are you sure she spoke with Jacqueline personally?”

He shook his head, brows furrowed in concern now. “I’m not sure, she didn’t tell me. Do you think something’s wrong?”

Something is definitely wrong, I just don’t know how wrong.

“She wouldn’t have just called in sick for no reason,” I glanced to the side for a moment.

Maybe it had to do with that Osborn kid that had her tied up in knots yesterday. Note to self, request extensive background check on the punk from SHIELD ASAP.

I paused then thanked everything that was holy for 21st century technology.

“Can you track her?”

“Electronically?”

I nodded. However the fuck they did it these days.

He shrugged and put a hand to his forehead- a nervous habit, I’m guessing.

“Well, sure, if she has her phone with her. If not, it won’t really do you any good.”

I’d already started backing away from him before he finished his words, eager to get the search going. The more time that passes, the worse the situation could get.

“It’s a start. Send me the coordinates when you’ve got them.”

Steve threw me a look as I rushed past the group around the perimeter of the room and back up the stairs toward the exit, but I didn’t bother stopping. A hand grabbed onto my metal forearm before I entered the elevator.

“Where are you going?” Sam asked.

“To do my job,” I said impatiently. “Hyde is MIA. Bruce is tracking her phone but if that doesn’t work, I’ll have to do things the old fashioned way.”

He thought for a moment before crossing his arms over his chest. “Well, two sets of eyes are better than one. I’ll come with you.”

I didn’t have time to disagree, so when the elevator stopped at our floor, Sam tagged along.

We were silent for a moment before the doors closed, but Sam was the one to break it.

“Let’s call this, Operation: Run Away Bride.”

“Shut the _fuck_ up.”

 

* * *

 

**Jac POV**

What do you do when your world falls apart?

If there were someone out there who had an answer for everything, that’s the one thing I would ask. A normal person would ask universal questions like “how is the world going to end”, “will I ever find true love”, or “what’s my purpose in the world”. “When am I going to die” is also a good one.

But I didn’t need to know those things. Existentialism wasn’t what I needed. I needed a way to stitch my life back together, a way to right my wrongs, or at the very least, a sign to show me what to do now.

What do you do when your world falls apart and it’s your fault?

I had two choices in front of me: Destroy the serum and with it, all potential good that I could do for the world, regardless of Peter’s worries about my safety, or save the life of the man that tore my world apart.

There was no sane reason for me to choose that latter of the two choices. But sanity had no power over the errant flame deep inside of me, still burning after all of these years. It was a flame of hope for the man I once knew who could stop my heart with a look. The man who inspired me to be better and who made my chest ache when he was gone, that was the Harry Osborn I held out so desperately for. If I went down that path, if I chose him, my best friend would never speak to me again and the loss of him would echo through my heart for the rest of my life.

Of my own volition, I’d entangled myself in a web I had no hope of getting out of. I had no one to ask for help, it was too dangerous that way. The one person I’d always counted on had abandoned me and I had no one but myself to blame for it. The choice I had to make would change my world and I wasn’t prepared for that- I didn’t know if I would ever be.

Staring at this grimy fucking lake in the middle Prospect Park wasn’t helping me do anything either.

I’d been sitting on the same bench practically all day, just staring at the damn thing, waiting for myself to have some life changing epiphany like people did in the movies, but to no avail.

Hopelessness is not a good look on me.

“Do you not know how to use a phone properly or do you just like being difficult?”

Jesus fucking Christ, _really_?! I can’t even wallow in self-pity in peace?

My head fell back against the bench with a thump and I groaned at my over zealous bodyguard as I stared heavenward.

“I can see why Coulson hired you,” I muttered. “You really are in top form at this whole ‘search and rescue’ thing.”

Not that the rescue part was in progress right now.

Now that he had made himself known, I could hear James approaching from behind. I didn’t bother looking his way.

“It wasn’t that hard finding you having the fact that your 4 miles away from your apartment,” he drawled with barely contained annoyance.

James was in front of me now, glaring the way he does with furrowed brows and a look that could burn a hole through your forehead. The blue was more prominent today and seemed to jump like there were icy flames behind his eyes. His hair was free of its usual ponytail and was windblown, caressing his cheeks every other moment. The tightness in his lips were a tell tale sign that his jaw was clenched.

Despite his obvious annoyance, or whatever that was, I couldn’t be bothered. I was in a mood; a particularly bad one that I knew would not allow me to give a shit about putting him out. Normally, I would have apologized profusely for being an inconvenience, seeing as I hate them myself. I would have been nice, pleasant, as I always tried to be.

Not today.

“I was doing a pretty good job at ignoring the world and everyone in it before you showed up, Barnes,” I sighed, shifting my gaze hastily.

“That’s kinda hard to do when you live in a city filled with 8 million people.”

I chuckled for a moment and stared him down.

“And, coincidentally, when you have a bodyguard with advanced training and physiology.”

No reason to beat around the bush any longer. And honestly, I would rather talk about literally anything instead of myself at the moment.

On the positive side, I certainly got the reaction I was hoping for. His hardened expression fell apart at my words and I clapped myself on the back in my head.

_Jacqueline, 1. James, 0._

“Not that you’re useless on your own or anything… It’s just a perk.”

He deflated and something painful flashed in his expression before melting away in front of my eyes.

Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to bring this up now.

James shook his head, as if to shake away memories he would prefer not remember. “When did you find out?”

Shit, why did I have to be such a bitch when I was depressed?

“I didn’t,” I backtracked, ashamed. “I guessed…an educated guess corroborated with multiple pieces of evidence. My great grandfather was a Commando too.”

“Gabe Jones,” James spoke so softly that I wasn’t really sure if I was supposed to hear it. His eyes rose back to mine, fiery, like before, but in a different way. James wasn’t angry anymore- he was…determined. The fact that I had no idea why made me nervous.

“How much do you know about me?”

After the accident in ‘44, Army files reported James Buchanan Barnes as officially deceased.  Seeing is believing, I guess.

My tongue peeked out to wet my lips as I tried, unsuccessfully, to keep myself from withering under his gaze. “Not much. But according to public documents, you should be dead and not just because of your age.”

“It’s complicated.”

Yeah, story of my freaking life.

The edge of his mouth lifted into the crooked smile I’d come to associate with James when he moved to sit beside me on the bench. He had left a considerate amount of space between our bodies, but every shift he or I made resulted in contact. His mechanical arm peeked out from his grey t-shirt and grazed against the bare skin of my own. I didn’t feel the need to flinch at the temperature. The metal was warm and smooth, just like it had been when I observed him in the lab.

“I’m sure that’s an understatement, James.”

I spared a glance at him only to find him staring right back, unashamed.

My eyes fell to his lips for less than a second before I thought better of it.

“You don’t have to tell me,” I blinked, staring in front of me into the lake I had already become familiar with.

After the way I’d greeted him, I doubted that he would tell me anything at all.

“No, I don’t,” James agreed gruffly.

I nodded to myself, content with the silence we had created and his decision. James shifted once more against me and did the last thing I thought he would.

“We were on a mission in the French Alps, the Commandoes and I.”

My eyes flashed back to him as he began. Both arms were folded across his chest, making his muscles even more pronounced. His gaze was a head and away, as mine had been.

“Arnim Zola was the right hand man to Red Skull, knew all of Hydra’s secret. We went in there to capture him for questioning but…it didn’t go quite as planned.”

Hydra... They almost took over the world. They would have succeeded had it not been for Captain America and The Howling Commandoes. History had repeated itself two years ago during the takeover of SHIELD but Captain America was there again to stop them in their tracks.

I suddenly had a feeling that wasn’t all there was to the story.

“Steve and I got caught in a scuffle with a few of Zola’s henchman on the train. Long story short, we didn’t make it back to camp together. I don’t really remember much after falling but I woke up in a Hydra facility, I don’t know how long after, with a new arm and an alias. The Winter Soldier, they called me.”

I may not know much about spies, but the name ‘Winter Soldier’ didn’t sound like anything good.

“How did you survive a fall like that?” I asked, my scientific curiosity taking over.

James breathed deeply and winced. “When I was caught with the rest of the 107th, they took some of the soldiers they thought had the most potential and tried making us weapons.”

“Like Steve…”

Human weapons would have been invaluable during the war. The first thing Hydra would have done is tried to replicate Dr. Erskin’s formula to create super soldiers of their own. It made sense. It also left a sick feeling in my stomach. The last thing Hydra tried maintaining was ethics- this was a prime example.

It was so hard to imagine: James, strapped to a table, helpless, being experimented on…

I shivered and willed the images away.

“After I woke up, they wiped me and put me on ice when I became…difficult.”

Wait, what?

“Wiped you?” I repeated, confusion consuming me.

I heard his mechanical arm ripple and shift before it stilled against his chest. It must be a physical reaction to the increased stress hormones running through his blood stream. Like his body is attempting to protect him for something…

My heart all but stopped as his words clicked in my brain.

Dear God, _no_.

“They erased all my memories from my life and gave me a new one where I was their puppet- a puppet with a rifle in his hands.”

A hand flew to my mouth, unbidden. Fingers shook against my lips and I couldn’t control my breathing.

“After that, they only woke me up when they needed me to kill someone over the next 70 years. Called it shaping the new age,” he breathed, humorlessly.

Tears prickled in my eyes, but I fought them away. The last thing James probably wanted was pity- he probably had gotten enough for ten life times.

Anger I’d never felt before in my life consumed me instead. I wanted to hit something or someone. I wanted to hurt them, to cause them pain, make them bleed, all because of this one man.

They took his entire life away. They forced him to do their bidding, to kill for seventy years. They _killed him_. But he was here, he was alive.

My hands shifted toward him and latched on to his arm like he was my lifeline, like he would disappear if I let go for even a second.

“But you beat them,” I ground out thickly. “You’re free now- you are _James Barnes_ again.”

James flinched at the initial contact until his hard eyes rose to mine. They were burning even brighter than before and I could feel the heat of it on my skin. His brows were set deeply and I itched to smooth the lines out with my fingertips. We were pressed together now, almost as close as two people could be on a park bench. I wanted to touch him. I wanted to burn too.

He pursed his lips for a moment and slid his flesh and blood hand against mine gripping his left arm. “I didn’t do it on my own. If it weren’t for Steve, I don’t know where the hell I’d be. No matter what happens, I’m never gonna be Bucky. But I’m not gone, I’m not _lost_ , not anymore.”

I smiled sadly and my grip eased against him. A gust of wind blew around us, throwing stands of hair across my face. My own hands were halted by James’ right when it rose to my cheek, and with the slightest of pressure, tucked the dark stands back behind my ear.

Embarrassingly enough, a soft sigh escaped my lips. Without warning, James’ heated gaze fell to them.

 _Oh my god_ , please don’t do that. Please, _please_ , don’t. I don’t need any more incentive to kiss than I already fucking have, god dammit.

Get your shit together, Hyde! _The fuck_ are you doing?!

“Thank you,” I cleared my throat and spoke practically inaudibly.

He seemed to remember himself after that. James’ hand fell from my cheek and his gaze shifted back toward the lake, hardening again.

“When I found you, you looked like you’d been dragged into high tide. So where’s the hurricane?”

Well, there goes that.

I bit my lip for a moment and returned my hands to my own body.

An hour later, and I still didn’t want to talk about last night.

“I created it myself,” I breathed humorlessly before shaking my head. “I did something horrible.”

He laughed. James genuinely laughed at me.

I should have been offended but I was so happy to hear the sound after the conversation we just had that I didn’t care.

“Jacqueline, you don’t have a horrible bone in your body.”

That sure as fuck wasn’t true.

My arms circled my knees as I pulled them up to my chest on the bench, wanting to curl in on myself. “And how much do you know about me, outside of what you’ve observed in the past month?”

The fingers of my right hand twitched in the left pocket of my shorts, feeling for the cold vile that lay there. They clenched around it for a moment, willing it to vanish, and the guilt I felt along with it. A nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach didn’t let me leave the apartment without it. It felt 10 pounds heavier than it ought to.

_With great power comes great responsibility…_

I spared another glance toward James before looking down again.

I wanted to tell him the story, the real story of what happened, why things were happening now. James trusted me with his secrets and I wanted to trust him with mine. Suddenly I wanted that more than anything in the world. But I also knew that there was much more at stake for me. It wouldn’t just be my secrets I was shedding.

I had to protect Peter…and Spider-Man.

My heart rebelled against my head as I spoke. “I betrayed my best friend so I could save another one. But I didn’t save him. And now he’s back and…”

And my whole world is upside down.

“Do you love him?” James inquired after a beat.

My heart froze in my chest and I searched for the answer I’d know for a very long time.

“Maybe I did once,” I admitted, more willingly than I imagined. “But everything is different. The things he’s done… I can’t trust him now.”

Saving Harry was no longer my responsibility. I had made it mine years back and had never really given up on it. I don’t believe I am no either. I’m just letting _him_ go.

“Then I guess you have the answer to your problem.”

James seemed to accept that explanation without much of a fuss because he was rising from the bench in the next moment with his hand out stretched to me beckoning me to him

“Come on, I’ll take you home.”

A smile erupted on my face before I grudgingly accepted his hand. The spike of heat I felt when I did was somewhat of a wake up call- I was not going to stop feeling that for a while. I was not going to stop wanting to feel that every time we weren’t touching. Bad news for me.

The unpredictable complexity of wanting my bodyguard in the biblical sense was not something I had planned on or needed at the moment. What made it worse was that he might feel the same way.

“Thank you, James.”

I knew that he could tell by the way I was looking at him that I did not mean helping me up.

He shrugged, refusing to meet my eyes now. “I’m just doing my job.”

 _I’m the job._ Remember that, Jac.

I sighed, banishing all thoughts of attraction.

“No. You didn’t have to share story with me. You didn’t have to sit with me and listen to me babble about my soap opera of a life. You were patient and kind and I really appreciate it.”

James looked at me finally with his eyes furrowed, trying to figure me out again.

He smirked. “You know me, professionalism is what I aim for. Wouldn’t want a unsatisfactory review of my services- bad for business.”

I followed beside him as he began walking off down the path, back to wherever he parked his car, I assumed.

“Not to worry, you have been perfectly satisfactory to me,” I joked, smiling.

“Just satisfactory,” he feigned devastation. “I was kinda hoping I’d get something along the lines of an ‘outstanding’ or ‘incomparable’.”

James turned toward me suddenly, forcing me to stop in my tracks. His gaze heated up again and wandered over the different planes of my face.

Oh, this is _so_ not fair.

“Is there anyway I can hope gain your absolute approval?” he asked lowly, the sound vibrating in his chest.

I bit my lip against the smirk erupting on my face and stared back up at him.

“When I come up with something, I’ll let you know.”

“There you are!”

The spell was broken immediately.

We both looked in the direction of the voice and I identified the man as the same one with James on the day of my interview. He was wearing dark wash jeans, heavy-duty boots, and a bomber jacket that fit him perfectly. Jesus Christ, are all of his friends hot?

“You could have let me know you found her already. Damn near circled this whole park.”

So, he brought back up.

Right. Gotta admire the dedication.

James shook his head at the man as he approached and folded his arms back over his chest.

He nodded toward him. “Good, you need the workout anyway after that breakfast you had.”

The man pointed accusingly at James and scowled. “I wasn’t turning down free pancakes, Barnes. Six pack, be damned.”

Wow, they’re cute. In a married couple sort of way.

I waved from James’ left side. “Hi.”

The man’s full attention was on me then, with his charm almost as disarming as James’. _Almost._

“It is a genuine pleasure to meet you, Dr. Hyde. Sam Wilson, A.K.A Falcon, freelance Avenger, at your service.” He made a slight bowing gesture and I couldn’t help but laugh. Seriously, James knows how to pick ‘em.

“Likewise,” I giggled. “But Jac is fine, Mr. Wilson. The only people who call me Doctor are usually dressed in lab coats.”

He smiled wider. “And the only people who call me Mr. Wilson are non existent. Sam’ll do just fine.”

James huffed and began moving forward without us.

“Burning daylight here, people.”

Sam turned toward his with the stank face of the century.

“Excuse me, I’m the one with the car keys, Speedy Gonzales.”

I could practically hear James’ eyes rolling into the back of his head as followed both men back to their car.


	12. Unexpected Company

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! This update was going to be a lot longer but the second half ended up being longer than I anticipated so, I'm just going to post it as the next chapter. And just an extra tidbit, there are translations in this chapter written in. I know I usually put them at the end of the chapter but the entries were much longer this time around so I figured i'd just add them in. Soooo sorry for the ridiculous wait. I know, I suck. But here it is!!!
> 
> HAPPY READING :)))

**Chapter 11: Unexpected Company**

**Jac POV**

Sitting in the back seat of a car always made me anxious.

There was no logical reason I could conjure up that would explain why that was. Maybe it was the fact it made me feel young and in need of security, or perhaps it was the surrender of control that made me uneasy. Whatever the case may have been, I was glad it was only a short trek from the park to my apartment.

I could have walked home, in all honesty. However, James “watch you like a hawk” Barnes’ words of protest prevented me from doing anything of the sort. I would never say it out loud, but I was more than happy to spend time with anyone but myself at the moment- even if said time was spent in the back of Sam Wilson’s Jeep.

James knew what I was feeling better than most people. The guilt and contempt that comes with the act of betrayal, whether it’s committed against one’s will or otherwise, takes a toll like nothing else. It eats at you slowly, slow enough that you feel every bite with excruciating clarity- and it never stops really. Having James with me was the distraction I needed to lessen the blow; a dangerous distraction, considering the unexpected connection we had, but a distraction nonetheless.

But my time for distractions had run out and it was time for me to face the music.

My gaze shifted away from passing cars and pedestrians to the back of James’ head in front of me a moment before I pulled my cellphone from the pocket of MIT sweatshirt. The black screen reminded me that I had to turn the damn thing back on in order to use it. I wondered idly how many times James must have called me in order to track me down and a smile crept it’s way into my features at the ridiculous number that popped up onto my home screen. The fingers of my right hand dialed Peter’s number immediately afterward only to get the voice message I knew well enough to recite on my own.

“ _Hello! Peter Parker, here. Obviously, I’m not able to answer your call right now. Or I’m just ignoring you. Either way, you can leave a message and chances are I’ll get back to you. See you on the flip side_.”

I shook my head in silent resignation after a beat. Chances were, he _was_ ignoring me- with good reason.

My body shifted nervously as I waited for the telltale beep that would let me leave my message.

“Um, hey, Peter… It’s me.”

James glanced back at me through the rear-view mirror, brows furrowed.

I sighed. “I know that you probably don’t want to see me right now, much less talk to me on the phone. And I don’t blame you. I messed up and I betrayed your trust, all for something that didn’t end up mattering in the long run.”

A shaky breath escaped from my chest. I fucking hated this.

“Nothing can take back what I did. But I just- I just want you to know that I’m making the right choice this time. I’m choosing us. I’m choosing you, Peter. There are a lot of things I can live without: wi-fi, Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream, shitty Sy-Fy movies, the hella expensive first edition of Dorian Grey that I insisted I needed… Hell, I can even manage without my science equipment if it came down to it; but not you. I can’t live in a world without my best friend…so please don’t make me.”

The burning in my eyes was the telltale sign of tears I had no business shedding, so I hung up promptly after that.

I felt James’ eyes on me again and prayed in the back of my mind that he wasn’t the type to ask someone if they were okay, when they damn well knew the person in question was not. Thankfully, he was not. James simply caught my gaze once more and nodded at me reassuringly. I returned it, as much as I was able.

Sam pulled up to the apartment not a minute after the call and my stomach sank a bit as the car stilled. The one thing this experience had taught me so far was that I didn’t function well when I was left alone with my thoughts, but there wasn’t much I could do about it now.

Peter wasn’t coming home, not for a while. I would just have to deal with it.

Begrudgingly, I shoved my phone back into the recesses of my sweatshirt pocket and grabbed the door handle.

“Thank you, for the ride, Sam,” I said earnestly.

“Anytime, Hyde,” he beamed back at me, with a full set of blindingly white teeth.

Before I could react, the door was falling away from me.

My eyes shot up in surprise, only to see James holding it open with faint amusement glinting in his slate blue eyes. He held his other hand, his metal one, out to me and I took it immediately. The smooth fingers gripped my own, firm and gentle all at the same time. It was warm- he was always so warm.

There wasn’t a hint of contempt in my voice, when I spoke. “I can open my own door, you know.”

“I know,” James smirked, helping me out. “Old habits die hard, I guess.”

We walked side by side toward the front door, moving slowly; slower than I would have if I were alone. It was almost as if there was a thread holding us together, tugging us closer with every move we made. Our shoulders brushed against one another, like when we were on the bench, but this seemed different somehow. Charged, perhaps. Positives and negatives attracting. I couldn’t stray from his stride.

My eyes fell to my feet. “James Barnes, a gentleman? I think I need to see that one to believe it.”

He laughed lightly.

“I am much changed. You should have seen me in the 40s. You wouldn’t even recognize me.”

“Oh, I doubt that. You’re kind of hard to forget, James.”

We paused, directly in front of my door now. I glanced at him from the corner of my eye and instantly regretted it.

He was staring again, staring through me, looking at something I couldn’t see. My breath caught inaudibly at the intensity of it and I was frozen.

“Whatever happens between us, with our…situation, I want you to know that I’ll always be there,” James murmured lowly, deep in his chest. “If you need me, I’ll be there, _Jacqueline_.”

Oh, fuck.

I was so royally _fucked_.

My name rolled off his tongue, with the perfect Parisian lilt, in waves of heat that reached to every neuron of my being. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t think. All I wanted to hear was my name, falling from his lips, over and over again. Lips that I wanted pressed against my own, so badly I could hardly imagine much else.

The harmonic tones of The Verve playing from my phone halted every inappropriate thought I had conjured up about my bodyguard and my eyes squeezed shut.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, reaching into my pocket with shaky hands.

“It’s alright,” James said softly, as if he were much further than I knew that he was.

I opened my eyes again, refusing to look at him and pulled my phone in front of my face. Danny Rand’s name flashed in bold letters against the screen and it clicked in my mushy brain that I had bailed on him last night. I had never missed a lesson before. He was worried about me.

“I should, uh, get this,” I muttered, refusing to meet James’ eyes, pulling my apartment keys from my pocket as well.

He cleared his throat. “Right, then. I’ll just…”

Not a second later, James’ back was turned to me and he was racing down the steps, back to Sam’s Jeep.

With my back turned as well, I resisted the urge to bang my head against the door in front of me and answered Danny’s call instead.

“Hello?”

There was a pause.

“ _…Are you alright?_ ”

My hand paused, key in door.

“Danny? Yeah, I’m fine.”

“ _You just sound strange. Breathless._ ”

Yeah, hot super soldier bodyguards from the 40s with long hair and dreamy blue eyes will do that to a girl.

I cleared my throat slowly to regain my sanity and pushed my heavy apartment door open. “Everything’s alright. I was just at the park.”

My left foot shut the door behind me and I made a beeline for the circular oak wood table in the foyer, dropping my keys into the designated dish.

“ _You didn’t make it to our session last night. I just wanted to check in, make sure everything was okay_.”

I wasn’t all right, but I was getting there.

“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just…” I kicked my sneakers off as I spoke and moved into the living room. “Something came up and I didn’t feel up to it. I’m sorry I didn’t call.”

“ _It’s perfectly fine. I’m just glad you are all right. Are we still on for this week or have you been eating one too many glazed donuts to make your way down here_?”

My eyes rolled on their own. “Ha, ha.”

I was about to plop my ass down on the couch when I noticed that my laptop was out of the messenger bag I had left it in on the coffee table.

Danny said something else but I didn’t hear him. I reached for the device in front of me and in the same moment a gloved hand flashed in front of my face, obscuring my vision before clamping over my mouth.

A scream tore itself from my throat immediately but little sound had come out to make the desired effect. I watched in horror as two figures, clad in all black, emerged from my bedroom. One was blonde with his hair cut short to his head and the other was a brunette with a scar over his right eye. They hadn’t bothered to cover their faces, which gave me an advantage. That was, if I managed to get away, which I didn’t have a good of doing, considering the odds.

One guy, I could take. Two, maybe. Three, at the same time? Hell no.

The man who held me plucked the phone from my hand and promptly hung up on Danny. James and Sam were probably long gone by now. I whimpered lowly.

I was all alone.

I fought against the hand holding me, which only increased his grip on me. I managed to get a good shot to the fuckers ribs but he didn’t let up on my mouth. He groaned in pain and jabbed me in the side with as much force to knock the wind out of me. My chest started heaving in an effort to pull the air back into my lungs but the man paid me no mind. He picked me up and over the back of the couch, and moved toward the kitchen, pinning my arms behind my back, guiding me in front of him.

The other two men were flaking his sides, carrying bags filled with miscellaneous papers and files.

My work… They wanted my fucking work!

When one of them got close enough, I used the energy I had left and nailed him in the dick with my foot. It was the only moment in my life that I would have preferred to have heels on.

The scarred brunette cursed profusely in a language that was certainly not English. His eyes were burning with rage and he came for me. The man holding me didn’t bother to stop him and the pain in my temple was immediate.

My vision had gone blurry and there was a warm, wet trickle against the side of my face. It hadn’t all been in vain though. Because the dark haired one hit me, the idiot holding me lost his grip on my mouth. And once I was free, I let loose a scream that would rival that of a fucking banshee.

That was before I received two hasty punches to the gut that quieted me for what seemed like the foreseeable future as I laid, gasping for breath on the cold floor of my kitchen.

 

 

* * *

 

**Bucky POV**

“You’re a damn fool, you know that right?”

I didn’t even bother acknowledging Sam as he spoke, because I knew. Especially after that idiotic display I made of myself in front of Jac’s door. Not that my words were untrue- exactly the opposite. I wanted to be there for her, in ways that weren’t as wholesome as my job description stated.

There really and truly was no hope for me anymore when it came to the woman. I couldn’t fucking control myself. The way she looked at her door, unhinged desire raging, pulling me in closer... Jesus, _fuck_. I was a millisecond away from grabbing her and having my filthy way with her when her damned phone rang and knocked the sense back into me.

I was her bodyguard; her hired protector. I was entrusted to keep her safe, nothing more. But something inside of me was yelling, against my better judgment, needing _more_. Regardless, there was a line that I couldn’t cross, no matter how much I may have wanted to. So I would suck it up, and do what I had to- compromised emotions be damned.

When Coulson hired me, I’m sure the last thing he thought would happen was for me, the infamous Winter Soldier, to fall for the job.

“What are you doing, man?” Sam spoke a bit louder as I shut the car door beside me with more force than necessary.

I ran my mechanical fingers through my too long hair hastily and huffed.

“I honestly don’t fucking know,” I scoffed. “I can’t- I shouldn’t-”

He threw me a look mid sentence that stopped my words immediately.

“That’s not what I meant.”

My eyes narrowed as I stared at him dumbfounded.

“She wants you too, man,” Sam insisted, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

I shook my head in disbelief. Jac couldn’t have feelings for me. Even if she did, it wouldn’t matter. There was nothing either of us could do about it. Furthermore, I was fairly sure she was still hung up about that piece of shit, Harry Osborne.

The ache had returned to my chest at the thought of Jac, with someone else- kissing, touching, fucking, _loving_ …

After a distinct snap broke me from my reverie, I realized that Sam’s passenger door handle had become an unfortunate casualty as a result of my fraying thoughts.

A pained grumble of unintelligible words erupted in the back of Sam’s throat as he looked at the pitiful piece of his car, demolished in my fist.

“Sorry,” I muttered sheepishly.

He rolled his eyes at me but said no more on the matter, dropping his right hand into the gearshift.

The car had not moved an inch away from the curb before a scream, high-pitched and soul shattering ripped its way to my ears.

There was nothing else for me to do.

So I ran.

Looking back, I wouldn’t be able to recall making the trip from Sam’s car to the inside of her apartment. Everything in front of me was an obstacle. Later, I would blame my severe case of tunnel vision for Sam’s lack of passenger door.

Jac’s front door fell away beneath the force of my momentum, landing on the floor of her foyer. My hand twitched toward the concealed Glock 22 at my back immediately, seeing as my approach had been nowhere near silent.

_Three individuals, all male._

The blonde to my left stood in the living room gripping a duffle bag filled with folders and miscellaneous papers, which he promptly dropped to the floor at the sight of me. He’d barely gotten the chance to reach for the gun at his hip before I shot two strategically placed bullets into his chest.

Sam came up on my flank as the blonde fell back onto the glass coffee table with a grunt and a groan.

My aim and gaze shifted toward the two men standing in the kitchen and my heart clenched tight when I saw Jac curled up on the linoleum, gritting her teeth in pain. The older of the two, scarred and dark haired, stood in front of her, jaw locked and fist clenched. There was blood on the floor and I knew it was hers.

The fucker hit her.

He’d be the next to die then.

“Let her go!” Sam demanded next to me, hand outstretched.

I almost rolled my eyes. Fucking superheroes. He must have learned that diplomatic shit from Steve.

“Now isn’t really the time for cooperation, Wilson,” I growled through clenched teeth.

My hand tightened around the trigger. I had a clear shot on the one holding her but I knew Sam didn’t carry a gun. In the time it took me to kill the fucker holding her the other would have gotten the jump on one of us.

So I let the man shove Jac up, in front of him and out of the kitchen. The blood on the floor had fallen from a cut at her temple. More tell-tale signs of abuse. She didn’t look scared, like I expected her to be. She looked furious.

Sam stayed a foot or two behind me, blocking the only exit, that happened to be wide open.

The scarred thug stepped around his young partner that held Jac hostage, starring me down with a knife in his hand. “Put your gun down or she dies, идиот.” (idiot)

I scoffed. “Я последний человек, которого вы хотите , чтобы разозлить, Мудак.Вы понятия не имеете , что я могу сделать для вас.” (I am the last person you want to piss off, asshole. You have no idea what I can do to you.)

Sam and Jac’s eyes both flashed toward me in worry, unable to translate our conversation.

The deformed man seemed taken aback for a moment at my reply, being in his mother language but shook it off and chuckled, making the scar at his cheek crinkle and worsen.

“A кто ебать ты?” (And who the fuck are you?)

I could not resist the dark half smile that crept its way onto my face at his inquiry. He has no idea…

“Я Зимний Солдат.” (I am the Winter Soldier.)

The color drained from both of the men’s faces like a switch had been flipped.

“Fuck this,” a distinctly female voice groaned.

In a second, Jac had disentangled herself from the man holding her, using the very same move she’d used on her trainer the first time I saw her. His knees were kicked out beneath his as she held his arm behind his back. I slipped back into action at the man’s scream of pain. Sam went for the scarred one holding the dagger in the same instance.

Unfortunately for me, Jac’s display of force had distracted me long enough for the man I thought I’d killed to kick the gun out of my hands. Fucker must be wearing a vest. Unfortunately for _him_ , he was fighting a lost cause.

Being disarmed was like a wake up call. It was as if I were on autopilot. People were no longer people. They were obstacles. I was the Winter Soldier again, looking out my own eyes without control over my actions. This time I wasn’t scared; I didn’t fight it. I let the soldier take over because I needed him. And I had no remorse.

As soon as he threw a leg up in front of me, it was pulled into the iron-clad grip of a mechanical fist. It clenched around the bones of his ankle until I heard a deafening crack before throwing it away.

Both of his pathetic arm shots were blocked. Hands that were not my own were gripping him around the throat, dragging him around and into me. His chin and skull were pulled in opposite directions and like a rubber band, were stretched beyond capacity until it snapped in the middle. The body fell at my feet with a thud and without a beat, the soldier turned on the man going at Sam with the dagger.

_Kill, kill, kill._

Sam had the upper hand for a moment before the scarred man kneed him in the gut, shoving him away from his body. Before the man could advance further, the soldier swept his feet out from under him. His back hit the floor in the same moment that the dagger was thrust back into his own throat. Crimson jumped and stained the pale, deformed skin of his face and throat, running like rivulets onto the hard wood floor. The gurgled breaths quieted when the light fled from his eyes.

_Target locked. Sight, down the barrel of a sniper. One shot kill._

_Snow, white, pure. Streaked with red. Red everywhere…_

“Barnes.”

Sam’s voice was a light in the darkness, dragging me back.

He was holding the thug down on his knees, staring at me, waiting for the soldier to recede. It was the same thug who Jacqueline had dispatched what seemed like a lifetime ago. I shook off the darkness as much as I could and lifted myself from the ground. The right knee of my cargo pants was wet with blood, still warm.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jacqueline, slumped against the far wall of her foyer with her legs splayed into the hallway. I was not too proud to admit that I was afraid to look her in the eye. I didn’t want to see the fear and disgust that would most certainly be there now. She’d finally seen me- the real me, the monster that Hydra created. The only difference now was that I could control it, let it lose when I so desired. I was no longer a prisoner in my own mind and body. I could use their weapon against them. The man wasn’t the only thing Jacqueline would see when she looked at me now. She would see the monster too.

When I finally did build up the much-needed courage, her eyes were on me. She was still, tense like a cat ready for action. She appraised me as if I were the one that needed help, as if I were the victim. Her eyes held no fear- not for me, or of the very close call she had just experienced. After all the things she’d seen that I was capable of, she wanted to be the one to comfort me.

I was almost lost in our silent exchange before I remembered the last remaining man Sam was currently holding hostage. My eyes flashed to Jacqueline’s once more, as if to ask permission for what I was about to do. She knew- and she nodded.

The thug in Sam’s grip was trembling like a leaf in the wind under my gaze, holding his left arm to his chest, rendered useless by Jac’s maneuver. Hopefully, it was dislocated- preferably, _worse_.

He flinched with every step I took toward him.

_All black clothes, Russian language, attempted kidnapping._

_Hydra MO. Steal, manipulate, reform, control._

They tried to take Jacqueline. They wanted to take her from _me_.

Over my dead fucking carcass.

“Где ваша база операций находится?” I asked, low and calculated as I stopped in front of him. (Where is your base of operations located?)

He shook his head furiously before wincing at the movement that jostled his injured arm. He was young, too young to be getting himself involved with the black fucking hole that was Hydra.

“Я не могу. Они убьют меня!” he stammered, wide eyed. (I-I can’t. They would kill me!)

Of course they would kill you. They kill everyone, except those that are of use to them. That’s what would have become of Jacqueline, had they succeeded in their efforts- a puppet on strings. But this man didn’t care about that. He cared about staying alive, which would not happen if he didn’t tell me what I wanted to know.

“Есть вещи и похуже , чем смерть , поверь мне. Я не буду спрашивать вас снова.” (There are worse things than death, believe me. I won’t ask you again.)

The young man dropped his eyes from me, grinding his teeth hard against one another.

It took me less than a second to realize why that was.

My body dropped quickly in front of his and I grabbed his jaw tightly, forcing his mouth open.

The false, cyanide filled, molar hidden at the back of his mouth was ripped out in a heartbeat and thrown aside, the young man screaming all the while. He wouldn’t be taking the easy way out this if I could help it.

“What the fuck?” Sam shouted, gripping tighter onto the thrashing man between us.

“Poison capsule hidden in the teeth,” I clarified before shoving the young man’s head into the floor, effectively knocking him out cold.

“It’s an old school Nazi/Hydra tactic.”

Sam released the young man’s dead weight instantly, letting him slump to the floor of foyer.

“So, they’re Hydra then?”

I nodded stiffly.

“Jesus Christ, they’re like cockroaches.”

I shrugged. “You can kill cockroaches. Just need a big enough boot.”

Jacqueline’s movement in my periphery caught my attention and I shifted around Sam to get to her. When she lifted herself up onto her feet, her right hand flew down to grip her stomach as she winced. From the way she was slumped over, chances were that her ribs were bruised. Gripped in her left fist was a vile, filled with a yellow-green liquid that was strangely viscous.

I reached for her around the waist to steady her before eyeing the vial again.

“What is that?” I murmured for only her ears to hear.

For the first time today, I saw her russet brown eyes tremble in fear.

“It’s what they were after.”


	13. My Own Worst Enemy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I suck, and the chapter isn't that long but I wanted to give you guys something for waiting. I was going to make it longer but everything I came up with really seemed out of place. And I'm eager to get to the nitty gritty of what goes down after this so...yeah.
> 
> But any way, I hope you guys enjoy this, however short it may be.
> 
> HAPPY READING :)

**Chapter 12: My Own Worst Enemy**

**Jac POV**

Considering the carnage littering my apartment, I sincerely hoped that Peter would keep ignoring me and stay away from it. The last thing I needed on my plate was to find a way to explain all this to him. Having the fact that I wasn’t really sure what “all this” was yet, it wouldn’t bode well. Mad or not, I knew Peter Parker. He wouldn’t let me out of his sight for the foreseeable future. He had more important things to do with his time than worry about me, like saving the city or helping the elderly cross the street.

The bodies in the apartment didn’t bother me, although there was a deep-rooted feeling in my chest that they should. James, the man I had come to trust with my life, killed two men in front of my eyes. Watching that kind of violence and brutality should have triggered something in me. And it did, but not what that I was expecting.

Being assaulted in my own home, seeing my life’s work ripped out from under me… I only had room for one emotion- rage. I wanted them to pay for what they did and everything they planned to do from that moment forward. I wanted them to hurt. I wanted them to _die_.

Hearing that the goons were all Hydra made the guilt pressing down on my chest a lot lighter for thinking so morbidly.

SHIELD arrived 15 minutes after James knocked out the last thug and kicked us out of ~~my~~ the apartment, along with Sam to do a clean sweep. Most of the agents were inside, doing god knows what to make it not look like a Quentin Tarantino film. One of the eight remained outside with the three of us and James and Sam approached him, disclosing what they knew I assumed. This made me nervous. Once SHIELD found out about the serum, chances were they would try to convince me to hand it over- “for my safety”. There was no way in hell that was happening. Out of my hands, there were too many unknown variables floating around for me to trust it with anyone else.

My fist clenched around the vial in my pocket gently while I watched the three of them at the sidewalk. James seemed to sense my stare on him because he turned back to look at me as well. His grey blue gaze was remarkably gentle, so unlike it had been only an hour ago.

At this point in our relationship, I knew wholeheartedly that James would never hurt me. Even as I watched him take two lives, my mind held tightly to that belief. But there was something in him, something dark he released from himself that made me terrified for anyone that crossed him. It also made me feel oddly comforted in his presence, because I knew that darkness was the very thing that would keep me safe.

In my daze, I hadn’t noticed James approaching me sitting at the base of the stoop. He took a seat beside me, eyes flashing down to the hand in my pocket for a moment.

“What are you going to do with it?” he said, his gaze catching mine again.

I immediately let go of the vial and pulled my hand away, placing it on the top of my thigh.

My head shook in disbelief.

“You didn’t tell them?” I murmured, confused.

James’ eyes crinkled and a smile spread across him face.

“Of course not. They’re not much better than Hydra when it comes to handling potentially dangerous science experiments.”

Like a huge weight was lifted from my shoulders, I huffed out a laugh and shook my head before shoving James in retaliation. Well, I attempted to. He didn’t budge an inch.

Instead of shoving me back, his smile widened even more as he laughed at me. It was a beautiful sound, gruff and soft at the same time. It was a sound I wanted to hear more often.

I chuckled, despite myself. “You’re not wrong, but you’re working for them. Shouldn’t you be on their side?”

James’ smile faded slowly and his eyes fell to the steps below our feet.

“I don’t do anything just because some nameless person tells me to anymore.”

There was a pang in my chest at his words. The scenario he had painted this morning of how he had spent the last 70 or so years of his life came flooding back. I prayed, for his sake and my own, that he would never be forced into a situation like that again.

My throat cleared, willing away the visions of his pain.

“I’ll have to hide it.”

There were no questions about that. James nodded immediately in agreement.

“It’s too much of a risk having it close to you.”

Destroying the serum would be the safest option, as Peter had said, but there was something in the back of my mind that prevented me from going through with it. I could have tossed it into the murky lake in the middle of Prospect Park this morning. The scientist in me was desperate to find a solution to problem, a last ditch effort to help instead of harm. After all, Hydra was after me; that had to mean I was doing something right.

“If you hadn’t gone to the park, the venom would be in Hydra’s hands right now and you along with it.”

The words flowed so easily from him that I almost missed the venom in them.

I barely resisted rolling my eyes at him. Being reprimanded like a child was not something I was privy to, even as a child. “I know I shouldn’t-”

His eyes left the cracked sidewalk he’d seemed so captivated by and latched onto mine, so sharply, it knocked the breath from me. That dangerous glint was back and this time I knew it was directed at me.

“No, you shouldn’t have. What you did was dangerous and irresponsible. But I’m not going lecture you like a child, you’re smarter than that.”

I grimaced, already feeling like I had been.

“Having said that,” He turned to me fully now with his eyes barreling down on me. “Don’t _ever_ do anything like this again. The severity of the situation has increased tenfold from what I thought it was. No matter how things may seem, you are not safe on your own. Am I making myself clear?”

“Crystal,” I ground out, letting my pride take a back seat.

“Good.”

Without another word, he was off the steps and back on the sidewalk, hands comfortably situated in his pockets, like everything was peachy keen again.

Wait- _peachy keen_? What am I, 80?

I really needed to stop spending so much time with James.

“You should get checked out by a medic before we go,” James suggested, nodding toward the agent speaking with Sam next to his partially door-less car.

My eyes widened. “Go? Go where?”

He scoffed and tilted his head at me. “You didn’t actually think you’d be staying here tonight, did you?”

“Uh…” I froze dumbly.

To be honest, I hadn’t even thought that far into the future.

I mean, I guess I could spend the night over at my father’s place in Forest Hills, but that was perilously close to where Peter was at the moment and I wasn’t sure if I was ready to revisit that confrontation just yet. Maybe if I asked Darcy _really_ nicely-

“You’re staying at my place. There’s a good chance it’s the safest place in the city for you right now. I just gotta call and check in with Steve.”

“Steve… Wait, you live with Captain America?”


End file.
